Heather's Response to Kandahar

In Kandahar, Makhmalbaf uses very powerful imagery to convey his thoughts about some of the issues in Afghanistan. Like mentioned in Varzi’s Picturing Change, these images include the women who lack identities and wear burqas even in pictures, the prosthetic legs dropping from the sky, little girls learning about mines, and so on. Varzi calls Makhmalbaf’s film ineffective and less moving than his essay, but I found the film to be very meaningful and powerful. Makhmalbaf calls Afghanistan “a country without an image”, so as a result, his film helped to give the country its image. The citizens are scared for their safety, they are traditional, and are very religious. Little girls are taught to fear something they take comfort in, dolls could be mines. Young boys are taught about weaponry in the same way they learn prayer. The viewer sees men with missing limbs sprint to prosthetics because they could help them work again. These images are more powerful than actually seeing the combat or seeing the armies or the Taliban. We have seen the latter all over the news and the media, but we hardly ever see how this has impacted the citizens.

I liked how Nafas recorded her thoughts and ideas. It allowed the audience to make more of a relationship with her. I did not like the ending of the film. Nafas goes to great lengths to locate her sister, but the audience never really know if she found her or not. I was left asking myself if Nafas finds her, or if her sister commits suicide.