Stray Dogs

More well-meaning Makhmalbaf fare from Afghanistan; this time it’s Mohsen’s wife (and Samira and Hana’s stepmom) with a slight tale of two young kids and a cute mutt they rescue from the local urchins trying to survive while their Taliban dad and their mother are incarcerated in separate prisons (she simply because she remarried when he went off to war and he won’t forgive her). Admittedly fascinating for the glimpses it affords into post-Taliban Afghani life (the sexual politics are still archaic, and judging by a massive dogfight, animals get as raw a deal as women and kids), the film is nevertheless too contrived, simplistic and manipulative in its use of children and animals to succeed as anything more than a sentimental fable.