Safar e Ghandehar (2001)

Director:

Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Writer:

Mohsen Makhmalbaf (writer)

Release Date:

24 October 2001 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

After an Afghanistan-born woman who lives in Canada receives a letter from her suicidal sister, she takes a perilous journey through Afghanistan to try to find her.

Plot Keywords:

Sister | Afghanistan | Taliban | Journey | Refugee

Awards:

3 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Ike Ogut	...	Naghadar
Nelofer Pazira	...	Nafas
Hassan Tantai	...	Tabib Sahid
Sadou Teymouri	...	Khak
Hoyatala Hakimi	...	Hayat
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Monica Hankievich
Noam Morgensztern	...	Three children (voice)
Zahra Shafahi
Safdar Shodjai
Mollazaher Teymouri

Also Known As:

Kandahar (International: English title)
The Sun Behind the Moon (International: English title)

Runtime:

85 min | USA:81 min

Country:

Iran | France

Language:

Persian | English | Pashtu | Polish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Malaysia:U | South Korea:All | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-7 | France:U | Germany:6 | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:T | Sweden:7 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:PG | Australia:PG | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Afghanistan Border, Iran

Company:

Bac Films

Trivia:

The background score repeatedly used is in Sanskrit. It is a Hindu devotional hymn called "Suprabhata".

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Film Geek (2005)

A long strange journey into the past in the present.

This is an extremely beautiful film which inhabits a visual and emotional territory somewhere between Werner Herzog and Pasolini.

As others have stated, the actors are non-professionals and the plot is not the stuff of Hollywood melodrama. However the images and sounds are haunting and profound. Mahkmalbaf is truly a poet of the cinema.

The film does not attempt to make a political analysis of the situation of Afghanistan in 2001, but operates on a more humanistic and emotional level, showing the human consequences, the poverty both material and spiritual of life under the Taliban and the indifference of the outside world.

The "doctor" character, far from being implausible, is played by a real person with a very similar history. He is also a stand-in within the film for Makhmalbaf himself, who started as an Islamic fundamentalist revolutionary but has moved towards a more open-minded humanism.

The film itself describes a circle, the first scene is also the last, the sun shining through a burqa onto a woman's face. Between are unforgettable images, and a transit across a surreal and nightmarish landscape. Surrender yourself and you will really feel you have been on a journey.

The UK DVD also includes "The Afghan Alphabet" a similarly fictionalised documentary on the struggle to bring education to the three million or so Afghan refugees in Iran.