Vote Afghanistan!

With Afghan president Hamid Karzai back in the news following a spate of bizarre comments and accusations of health problems, it’s a good time to review the controversial 2009 election which swept him back to power. As a pictorial record of the run-up to polling day, focusing on three challengers – populist Abdullah Abdullah, intellectual Ashraf Ghani and barefoot man-of-the-people Ramazan Bashardost – ‘Vote Afghanistan!’ works fine. But it fails to probe any deeper, assuming a large amount of knowledge on the part of the viewer – not least with regard to the country’s ethnic and religious make-up – and failing adequately to outline the differences between the four main contenders. It doesn’t help that there’s a montage sequence every few minutes: shots of cheering crowds, dusty roads and humble politicians are all very well, but they can’t provide the context and analysis which this complex story demands.