In Khandahar, at first look I thought it was doing a decent
job at showing us life in the middle east and how their issues are different
then ours. A powerful scene I remembered was when the little boy Khak took a
ring off of a corpse and then tried selling it to other people and even the
main character. It was only shocking because the little boy didn't even recognize
the corpse, all he saw was making money off of something that was on it. And
not money for pleasure, but money for survival. It brought light onto survival
and as well women's rights.
Women's
rights were heavily touched on, but in a subtle manner. We were able to see in
the film how being a woman can be a curse, but also a blessing. Woman were
shown to be in a burqa and shielded from the world, but underneath all of it
they were still putting on make up, which made me wonder, why? No one can see
you underneath it, why spend that time covering yourself in make up. It was a
blessing because you are usually protected, however your freedoms only come
from you father or husband, which is very screwed up in my opinion.
After
reviewing the article posted online I didn't think of it, but they had a lot of
good points about the film. It brought up the fact that it wasn't a good film,
when it came to things like story and character depth. That and even saying
that the actors did a poor job of portraying their characters. Looking back on
the film they were right, Nafas was very dry and never really showed emotion.
In a very messed up way she used her UN privilege to bribe her way to see her
sister. Mind you, yes, it is a good thing to get there, but she put a lot of
lives in danger by doing it. She bribed someone to pretend that she was their
wife and to move her to Iran,
that person then is robbed of EVERYTHING. Then after that she bribes a child to
take her the rest of the way, after going a certain distance she tells the
child to get back, back the dangerous road the came, by himself. Following this
the next big bad thing I read in the article where the man who was pretending
to be a woman and hide is CAUGHT by the Taliban. So all in all she ruined some
peoples days or even perhaps lives. So after having a closer looks I liked the
film, but hated the characters.
Playing the Devils Advocate, it is harsh to say the actors or even the characters were poorly displayed in that we are not positive of how exactly people from this area and cultural background act. People from the middle east are portrayed as quite, too-themselves, and highly religious people who to no show much emotion in many context, aside from this film. So to say the characters were not portrayed well may or not be an accurate statement.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point that the main character put people in danger on her journey, but then again there were land mines all over the place to begin with. I mean the little kid was probably dirt poor which is why he took the cadavers ring, and she gave him $100 for his services which is probably a small fortune to them. I do agree with you on the lack of development of the characters. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing because it takes the focus off of individuals and shifts it to the harsh environment that they live in which I think was the directors intentions.
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