Broken

Makhmalbaf’s film Kandahar was a strange mix of both terrible and emotionally moving.  The social and political turmoil that were occurring in Afghanistan were depicted very well on screen but how the film makers were able to achieve this I don’t know because it was obvious that none of the people being filmed were actors.  Many times the cast stumbled over their lines and repeated themselves or they would stare blankly at each other until someone dully read their lines as if it were a grocery list.  The scene with the two female doctors was particularly hard to watch.  No one seemed to have any idea what they were doing.

But despite all this, the film was somehow still deeply moving while at times being surprisingly funny.  The main character’s guide Khak could not be suppressed it seemed by anything.  His refreshing antics came as a bit of a shock in this desert world that had appeared so dry and dead of humor.  And even the scene with the American doctor and little Afghani girl was able to provide some brief relief from the unrelenting depression surrounding all the characters in the film.

One of the most beautiful shots in the entire film was of the amputee’s running for a pair of legs dropping from the sky.  It summed up the entire film.  Afghanistan has essentially had its legs blown off from under it.  Perhaps like the mysterious sister, it reached for a doll and was deceived.  But this shot illustrates how Afghanistan is not dead, only wounded and it has survived.  Like the amputees it is desperate to improve, to heal. But this nation’s hope can only live for so long. The main character, I believe, is not returning to save her sister, but to save her homeland from self destruction.