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Kandahar

Original title: Safar-e Ghandehar
  • 2001
  • Not Rated
  • 1h 21m
IMDb RATING
6.8/10
7.2K
YOUR RATING
Kandahar (2001)
Drama

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.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.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.

  • Director
    • Mohsen Makhmalbaf
  • Writer
    • Mohsen Makhmalbaf
  • Stars
    • Nelofer Pazira
    • Hassan Tantai
    • Ike Aykut Ogut
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.8/10
    7.2K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Mohsen Makhmalbaf
    • Writer
      • Mohsen Makhmalbaf
    • Stars
      • Nelofer Pazira
      • Hassan Tantai
      • Ike Aykut Ogut
    • 58User reviews
    • 95Critic reviews
    • 76Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 4 wins & 6 nominations total

    Photos8

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    Top cast11

    Edit
    Nelofer Pazira
    • Nafas
    Hassan Tantai
    • Tabib Sahid
    Ike Aykut Ogut
    • Naghadar
    • (as Ike Ogut)
    Sadou Teymouri
    • Khak
    Hoyatala Hakimi
    • Hayat
    Fahim Fazli
    Fahim Fazli
    • Commander Latif
    Monica Hankievich
    Noam Morgensztern
    • Three children
    • (voice)
    Zahra Shafahi
    Safdar Shodjai
    Mollazaher Teymouri
    • Director
      • Mohsen Makhmalbaf
    • Writer
      • Mohsen Makhmalbaf
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews58

    6.87.1K
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    Featured reviews

    10Sawbone

    Interesting look - don't mind previous comment on Indian music

    The comment on the Indian music is off base - Indian music and DVDs are common in Afghanistan as the local entertainment industry is still recovering from the Taliban.

    Bollywood film DVDs are sold in Kabul. Pictures and posters of Indian actresses are popular here. It isn't unusual to hear recorded Sitar music here in Kabul.

    Afghan and Indian music was distributed secretly at great risk during the Taliban reign.

    There is just not enough Afghan material yet and Afghans love music, even if they don't understand Urdu.

    There is a scene in the movie where an instrument is seized by the Taliban before the wedding.

    So the soundtrack was completely appropriate for me.

    Hopefully we will see a feature film made inside Afghanistan someday. Its a beautiful and fascinating place and holds fascinating stories.
    7stensson

    Unbelievable life conditions

    If you really want to know, especially if you are a woman, how it was and in many ways probably still is, to live in Afghanistan, you should see this movie. This is truly shocking, without any seen physical violence. But the violence here is anyway bigger than in most "action movies" together.

    The plot is about the Afghanian woman who is living in Canada. She has, through un-official ways, heard that her sister, still living i Kandahar, is planning to commit suicide. The Canadian/Afghanian woman tries to reach her sister and Kandahar. But there are obstacles, so to say.

    This is like seeing a documentary and you get a real illusion of the terrible Afghan life. It deforms everyone, but it's also clear that it's not only the Taliban regime which is to blame for everything. Poverty deforms people morally. It even deforms the war victims without legs, who tries to cheat in rough ways to get prosthesis, obviously in order to sell them.

    This is to be recommended. Definitely not a mainstream film.
    7Nazi_Fighter_David

    Like many films from Muslim countries, "Kandahar" is vitally concerned with female emancipation

    The film's great success with audiences was in part due to the timing of its release, at a moment when Afghanistan had been catapulted into the headlines by the activities of the Taliban and the attacks of September 11, 2001…

    But the motion picture, directed by one of Iran's most prominent film artists, is much more than a story pulled out from the headlines… It stars Nelofer Pazira, a female journalist, based in Canada, playing Nafas, who is trying to get into Afghanistan to reach her sister who lives in Kandahar… Nafas's sister is threatening suicide because of the intolerable oppression of women by the Taliban…

    In the course of her long and dangerous journey, Nafas encounters a mixed array of Afghan people, many of them refugees… An old man agrees to take her into the country disguised as his fourth wife… Later she acquires a young boy, Khak (Sadou Teymouri), as her guide after he has been expelled from a religious school… On the way she meets Tabib Sahid, an African-American who had come to fight the Soviets but who is now practicing medicine…

    "Kandahar" mixes documentary authenticity with extraordinary moments of visual strangeness ad beauty… The Burka is an ever-present symbol of women's subjugation, yet underneath women wear varnished nails and lipstick, and their brightly-colored robes affirm their individuality… The film placed the suffering of the Afghan people, particularly the women, on an international stage
    7JoeytheBrit

    Fascinating and harrowing

    Filmed on the Iran/Afghanistan border, KANDAHAR is a semi-documentary style movie that chronicles the perilous journey undertaken by an expatriate female journalist, Nafas, to reach the city of Kandahar, where she hopes to rescue her sister from committing suicide during an impending eclipse. However, Nafas's odyssey is really little more than a device to lift the veil on the poverty and hardship of life in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

    Through a series of vignettes, the movie succeeds beautifully in revealing insights that are both fascinating and harrowing. It is almost impossible to imagine a culture so far removed from the relatively comfortable life enjoyed by more ‘civilised' nations. Young boys rock back and forth, reciting the Koran while learning to become Mullahs, pausing only to recite the meaning and purpose of the sabre and semi-automatic machine gun when prompted by their teacher; young girls have lessons in how to resist the temptation to pick up possibly booby-trapped dolls; a doctor treats his female patient by speaking to them via children as they sit either side of a makeshift screen, and conducts his examinations through a small hole in the screen; the threat and consequences of land-mines pervade everybody's life, and year-long waits for prosthetic legs are commonplace, so that prosthetics become a black-market currency.

    True, the acting is poor – most of the cast are non-professionals, many never even having seen a moving picture before appearing in this film – but, the purpose of this movie was not to dazzle us with superior acting; it was to open an eye to the hardship endured by both men and women in an oppressive regime, and, at this, it succeeds beautifully.
    8manisg

    must watch to see whats happen in afgan

    I amazed with Hindu devotional song used in background.

    It reminds that all god are same one and only but we pray at differently.

    I have seen good movie, second to About Elly. Good movie. must watch.

    It pictured day to day life of Afghan women.

    It induce lot of inner questions like Dr. in this film.

    Why should all happen for that people? why they can not like others in this world?

    Director & lead charter in this story done marvelous work.

    All charter brings the really in their face.

    I love background music , really fantastic.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      This movie was filmed mostly the Iranian desert. Secretly, this movie was also filmed in desert Afganistan, without the Taliban's permission.
    • Connections
      Featured in American Fugitive: The Truth About Hassan (2006)
    • Soundtracks
      Sri Satya Sai Suprbhatham
      By Mohammad Reza Darvishi

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    FAQ17

    • How long is Kandahar?Powered by Alexa

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • February 1, 2002 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • Iran
      • France
    • Languages
      • Persian
      • English
      • Pashtu
      • Polish
    • Also known as
      • The Sun Behind the Moon
    • Filming locations
      • Afghanistan Border, Iran
    • Production companies
      • Bac Films
      • Makhmalbaf Productions
      • StudioCanal
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $1,418,314
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $22,866
      • Dec 16, 2001
    • Gross worldwide
      • $8,914,751
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 21 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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