I am from Kandahar, Afghanistan. A place that no one had heard of several years ago but now everyone feels like they have some knowledge of it. That’s nice. I think its nice, really. But, if you want to get an idea of what Afghans are like, or what my native land is about, do not rent Kandahar. It is awful, horrible, atrocious, an abomination.
It was filmed pre-September 11 and it is basically an anti-Taliban propaganda piece. Excellent. I hate those dickheads as much as the next person. Probably more because they are responsible for the continuted oppression of my people (my people, as opposed to ‘my public’). But the movie is just terrible. I understand the entire concept of artistic license, but I think no one should have given them a license of any sort to do anything. Ever.
First, the movie is about Kandahar, and everyone in the movie speaks Dari, which is a form of persian. People in Kandahar speak Pashto. NOT DARI. I think they stuck to persian because the director is Iranian. Second, the acting sucked. They tried to make it like a documovie so they used refugees from the camps on the border of Iran as the actors. But, clearly they were acting, or trying to. Pick a genre. Documentary or Movie. You can’t have it both ways with amateur actors. Sheesh, must I be in charge of the entire world here?
Third, and this is probably not entirely fair, but the subtitles were wrong. It was so wrong in parts, it was hysterical. Some of the ‘actors’ spoke pashto in the movie so I knew what they were saying, but the subtitles were completely different. The people in the movie would say pretty lame stuff, and they completely changed the dialogue to make it seem deeper than it actually was. It made me not trust the other subtitles for dari, which I don’t understand.
All in all, I give this movie all fingers down. We turned it off halfway through because I just could not stand it anymore. Don’t see it. Period.
But you should see Napolean Dynamite. And Anchorman.
