Kandahar

Nafas, a female Afghan journalist who has fled to Canada, makes an illegal crossing of the border from Iran into Afghanistan on the way to see her sister, who lives in Kandahar, where she is so desperate she wants to end her life.

A deadly journey through Taliban territory follows. Gradually, the consequences of twenty years of (civil) war reveal themselves; the Afghan population is destitute and riven by hatred and distrust. At the same time, Afghanistan is – as we see through the veil of Nafas’ burka – a country of incredible natural beauty and a proud people, in spite of it all.

Scintillating blend

With Kandahar (Safar-e Gandahar), Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalkbaf delivered a poetic indictment of the international lack of solidarity with the Afghan people, in particular in relation to the fate of Afghan women, driven out of the social life of the country by the radical Taliban government.

The film – which is not a political pamphlet, but a scintillating blend of documentary and feature film – premièred in Cannes a few months before the Al-Qaida attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon (on 11 September 2001), and screened at many film festivals.

In 2005, Makhmalbaf went into exile as a political dissident in Paris, from where he continued his opposition to the Iranian regime as a human rights activist. Last year, he wrote the following to that regime: “‏We, the people of cinema, poetry, and literature, have a responsibility to light a torch, in the heart of darkness, not to create heroes, but to speak the truth. And the truth is this: ‏No war is holy. No war is liberating. War is destruction. And peace is not optional – it is essential.”

Screening of a 35mm print from the Eye collection.