Kandahar

When watching Kandahar, I was immediately surprised that the main character, Nafas, spoke English. The last few films that we watched during class all had subtitles as the dialogue was spoken in that country’s native tongue. It was nice because I didn’t have to read subtitles and instead could listen to the soothing voice that Nafas had. After reading the piece written by Roxanne Varzi, I would agree with her assessment that the English language was used to appeal to “foreign audiences, especially Americans” (Varzi, 932). When watching a film made in Afghanistan, hearing English was the last thing that I expected and I immediately became more interested in what was being said, since I could understand it. Something else that I noticed was that many of the people in the film were persistent in what they wanted. For instance, Nafas wants to get to Kandahar and she doesn’t care who takes her there, so long as she arrives. Khak’s mother is persistent in talking to Mullah because she doesn’t believe her son should be expelled from school. Khak keeps trying to sell Nafas the ring he found although she repetitively tells him that she does not want it. The man who has two good legs keeps asking the women at the Red Cross for legs for himself, then his friend, then his mother. I think this persistence shows that even though these people are surrounded by poverty and war, they will still fight for what they need in order to survive, perhaps something they’ve learned from the war.  

            In part, I agree with Varzi in her writing. Although the film was interesting, I felt as though I were watching a documentary, not a movie. Kandahar is about a young woman living in Canada who travels through Afghanistan to get to her sister who will commit suicide. For a topic as heavy as this, I felt like there would have been more emotion or desperation on Nafas’ part to get to her sister. Instead, Nafas was cool and showed little emotion. Other scenes in the film had elements of emotion, like when Khak gets expelled, the family taking Nafas gets robbed, and the men without limbs chase after prosthetic legs. Since the majority of the film is centered on Nafas’ journey, her lack of emotion played a big role in the film, and ultimately made the scenes with emotion stand out so much more.