I really liked Afghan Star for a couple reasons. Firstly, I liked seeing how something like music, and this TV show, can bring such a torn country so close together. There are what seems like countless ethnic groups in Afghanistan, and most of the singers were from a different one each. Even with their differences, they were all supportive of each other, and their fans seemed to follow this behavior as well. Many people, regardless of origin, would always gather together to watch the show on Friday nights. Another thing I really liked is that since it was a documentary, it showed you the country exactly how it is, it didn't have any backstory or anything like that. Consequently, it showed me that Afghanistan has a pretty cold climate. In all the media I have seen involving Afghanistan, like the news, and images of the war, it always seems like a desert, with little to no rainfall or cold. The opening scene of this movie was snowy mountains. Another thing that I found very interesting about this film was the role of religion. In most Middle Eastern countries, music is banned. When music in Afghanistan was unbanned, you could tell that some devoutly religious, people still frowned upon it. Because of this, I was very surprised to see the first place winner, Rafi, walk into a mosque and receive a blessing for good luck in his performance. His religious affiliation seemed to condone his actions. Also, I think I remember the women being treated much more unfairly than the men. I feel like they received far more criticism and hate than the men that also sang.

This was such a well done documentary that gave me a completely new perspective on the country of Afghanistan and its people. I cannot believe that music was banned in Afghanistan for about 20 years and only recently (the early 2000s) was it finally allowed again. Afghan Star is the first and only singing talent competition TV show that Afghanistan has ever had. It is such a big deal because not only does it involve singing, but it also is the first time that many Afghans have been exposed to democracy and been able to take advantage of it. The voting for Afghan Star is all done through SMS messages that the people send from their mobile phones which is also cool because I had never realized or thought about the idea that everyone in Afghanistan would have a cell phone. I thought it was crazy how when one of the competitors, Setara, danced on national TV everyone freaked out, and men were calling her "loose" and saying that she should die. Clearly the society is still very conservative and rigid when it comes to this, and while they may accept and enjoy singing, dancing is something that the Afghan people are definitely not ready for. Overall, I would give this film four out of five stars.

Now, here's a sentiment I can relate to: peoples' universal love of singing! It doesn't matter where you're from, or which religion you follow. There's something about really belting it out into a karaoke machine that's just irresistible. People makes careers studying the psychological components and the deeper meaning of Human Nature, but some of it is pretty simple and common. This documentary follows the Afghan Star televised singing competition. The show follows the format of American Idol, but instead of singing cheesy, English pop songs, the contestants here sing traditional Afghan music. Apparently, the songs are more popular and contemporary than classical Afghan music, but they're still in some of the various languages spoken in Afghanistan, and deemed culturally and morally acceptable by Islamic law. That's important for a show that's broadcast throughout the whole nation. This is a particularly touchy subject for the nation, since it's one of the few things about which citizens can vote democratically. Anyone with a cell phone can text in and vote for his or her favorite singer. In a country as ethnically diverse as Afghanistan, citizens wonder whether the voting will really be unbiased, or whether voters will simply choose the contestant from their particular ethnic group. And, In another unsurprising twist, these new voters run right into another one of the most contentious issues in modern democracy: campaign finance. Wealthy Afghanis have figured out that they can purchase thousands of SIM cards, thereby throwing the vote in favor of their particular darling. (I guess there's more than one universal theme in this film.)This documentary is really good. Director, Havana Marking, does a great job introducing us to the various contestants, and she really builds the right amount of suspense as the competition progresses. We get to know the singers a little. We rejoice with them when they advance to another round, and we cry with them when they're eliminated. This show was very interesting, because it was one of the first new programs to pop up once the Taliban's decades long ban on singing and music was finally lifted. The show was particularly controversial because the producers allowed women to compete on television alongside men. The film indicates that this contest falls into a gray area of Islamic law. While there is no ban on women singing, the female contestants would have to be very careful not to draw the wrong kind of attention to themselves by appearing vain or sexy. And, some of these women come dangerously close to the line. It's interesting to see how Afghanistan's culture has started to revive itself after the Taliban lost its hold on Kabul. People are wary, and they are branching out very carefully, but they never really lost their old preferences.

I'd imagine everybody stands somewhere in relation to reality TV shows. For Britain, the experiment that was the first series of Big Brother back in 2000 eventually gave way to a plethora of various reality programmes of varying sorts covering varying ground. For some, they can be torturous; for others, they are most probably the highlight of one's week. For those whom partake, they can lead onto serious amounts of either fame or infamy, but love them; loathe them or feel utterly nonplussed about them, rest assured there are certain editions of such shows that mean and affect so much to so many, thousands of miles away. British produced 2009 documentary Afghan Star is a looking in at precisely this scenario, a documentary covering a stretch of time zeroing in on those both in front and behind the camera; both those working on the show and thousands of fans around the nation of Afghanistan looking on via their televisions. It is a really enjoyable, positively eye opening piece those involved should be proud of.The events told within unfold in the aftermath of the dissipation of Taliban rule. Under such a dictatorship, not only was television banned but music as a whole as well as the engaging in singing and dancing additionally prohibited. What Afghan Star is, is the combination of each of these things so as to produce the Afghan "X Factor" or the Afghan "American Idol"; the encouraging of a nation to flock to their TV's, if not already turning up at various auditions, to sing and to engage in music and, arguably most notably of all, to vote under free and democratic conditions for their favourite act. The film, from Havana Marking and company, is a capturing of what unravels both on and around this show; a exploration of the trials, tribulations and rather fetching events that come with the indulging in new order activity.Applications appear open to anyone; those whom journey to the show are of varying internal tribal sorts and are of both male and female genders of varying ages. Their stage appears simple to us, but an array of multi-coloured lights and lasers on an elevated platform in front of a blank white screen is enough to set the scene for the expressing of one's emotions within one's voice and, fleetingly, have a nation's eyes upon them. Every episode, host Daoud Sediqi comes on and whips the crowd into a post-liberation infused frenzy of shouting and chanting at the prospect of seeing those scheduled for the evening's show. One male contestant whom caught my attention spoke of his desire to be a singer within the classical genre, and what was even more interesting was that he was willing to give all of that up if it meant a career in popular music: a self confessed bowing to audience demand and what is much more popular if needs be. Primarily, the thought of a young Afghan man living in whatever conditions he inhabits under the sort of regime that he did, but yearning to be some kind of tenor, is quite fascinating; the documentary then going on to capture the impact that the beliefs of the Western world have implemented through their presence when the man talks of bowing to a commodity audiences demand if needs be.Havana Marking does well in her cutting to and from both the contestants and those in charge with producing the programme, the editing and airing of which brings about several issues later on. Her documentary film will come to cover that of Hameed Sakhizada; Setara Hussainzada; Rafi Naabzada and Lema Sahar, for they come to resemble the final four left in the competition. The final segment, of which, is dominated by a very particular event executed in the heat of the moment and going on to spawn hatred and disbelief amongst many Afghan's. Earlier on in the piece, Marking makes us aware of the power that the show has in terms of its contestants sexuality and the manner in which onlookers might perceive those appearing. Where younger teenage girls in a family of so-many occupying an as basics-as-you-like dwelling observe a male contestant, and find him glamorous; alluring and attractive, the shoe on the other foot can only cause moral outrage and bemusement as particular female singer Setara Hussainzada dances prior to being ejected and thus, breaks Islamic public order law.It's here Harking's film takes on another guise altogether; the dangers of chasing fame and the question as to whether Western and Islamic cultures can co-exist, or even meld together, in the first place. Where a bomb scare early on in the documentary whilst everyone was at the TV studio is one item, perhaps aimed at the show or perhaps at something else altogether, the event raises the question as to whether embracing these things that past rulings so fervently rejected can, in fact, be hybridised with newer, fresher ideals more linked to sociological and cultural orientated items. Harking keeps everything cinematic. Grounded, but cinematic. Her shooting of the dusty Afghan desert to a chorus of trumpets recalls Spaghetti Westerns of old as the final result between the last two nears, that sense of a showdown looming prominent. The dancing event puts things in perspective; my own mind darting back to a performance from a few years ago during a cinematically themed night on a musical talent show presenting to us a troupé of young women belting out a Moulin Rouge number in full, Burlesque garb. More recently, during the live final of ITV's 2010 "X Factor" show, I doubt Christina Aguilera would have been able to do much in the way of avoiding the wrath of the locals had her antics been entertaining that of a Kabul based nightspot; her performance most certainly going on to render both the stage and her presence nothing more but a firing line of missiles and hatred. In essence, it is quite the remarkable little documentary.