Kandahar Review
Completed just months before the United States' military involvement in Afghanistan, Iranian filmmaker Mohsen_Mahkmalbaf's neo-realist, political road movie took on added resonance once the Western world, for unarguably selfish reasons, took an interest in the lawless region. But even after the Taliban's treatment of women ceased to be a media issue du jour, Kandahar remains a potent, visceral, first-person look at life within the borders of an oppressive regime. All the more heartbreaking because the movie was based on her own experiences, Niloufar_Pazira turns in a measured, inquiring performance; she's as much a spectator as the audience, and that quality goes a long way in smoothing over the film's rough spots. Indeed, Kandahar is understandably marked by some amateurish acting and a rough technical quality reminiscent of older European films (with their jagged cuts and off-sync dubbing). But Mahkmalbaf's sense of poetry -- evident in the film's imagistic prologue, its heartbreaking, bizarre prosthetic-leg air drop sequence, and its shattering final shot -- is strong enough to shine through any budgetary limitations. Michael Hastings, Rovi
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