Mohsen Makhmalbaf's "Safar-e Ghandehar" ("Kandahar" in English) is one of those movies that turned out to be more significant than the people involved in the production assumed that it would be. Even when it got screened at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, most people worldwide had never heard of the Afghan city. But the 9/11 attacks focused everyone's attention on the Central Asian country, and suddenly, cities like Kabul, Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif started appearing on the nightly news.This Iranian-French co-production makes the Taliban's Afghanistan look like the most miserable place, especially for women. The saddest thing is that the Taliban would've never taken over had the USSR not invaded Afghanistan, prompting the US to back Islamist fighters against the Soviet army. Even with the Taliban out of power, the situation for women in Afghanistan looks as bleak as can be (to say nothing of Afghanistan's narco-economy).The most interesting thing about this movie is that it shows us people's daily lives in an isolated society. Told from the point of view of an Afghan-Canadian woman looking for her sister, it's a devastating look at the country. I recommend it.

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.

I came to this movie thinking it would be a documentary--and it is, in a way: it was filmed in what appears to be war-torn Afghanistan, and it includes some genuine news footage. At first, I was confused because "reality" soon gives way to scenes and behavior that could only be called, at best, surreal; at worst, bizarre. The main character, who is also the voice-over narrator, is played by an Afghanistan-born Canadian actress impersonating herself. The rest of the cast, with three exceptions, seem to be Afghanis speaking their native dialects. However, through their gestures, speech rhythms, and of course the subtitles, I would guess they are recently recruited actors. To me, it feels more like classical Greek drama than realism. But that's okay with me: fiction can be truer than fact, to reverse the old cliché. Though flawed, the film is powerful at the emotional level. The cinematography is spectacular. I came out feeling I had a deeper understanding of the tragic history of Afghanistan

You can read all the books and newspaper articles you want, nothing can give you a feeling for life in a repressive theocracy like a well-made film, and Kandahar is that film. Nafas, a woman who fled Afghanistan before the takeover of the Taliban receives a disturbing letter from her sister who was unable to flee with the rest of her family. The sister is so depressed that she has decided to kill herself on the occasion of an upcoming solar eclipse. Nafas decides she must go to Kandahar to find her sister and somehow get her out before it is too late. After flying to Iran, she crosses the border by land into Afghanistan and is immediately faced with the rigors of life under the Taliban. Her annoyance at having to purchase and wear a burka at all times fortells the trying experience she is about to have. Going from one misadventure to another, it is a descent into an absurd hell. The story is compelling, the photography starkly beautiful, and the acting so real that one has the impression of watching a documentary. I would say it is "Survivor" meets the Taliban but Survivor is ultimately about selfishness whereas the protagonist is a paragon of devotion to her sister. The film is based on a true story (except it involved two friends rather than sisters) and was filmed in Iran near the Afghan border before the events of 9/11. I would so much like to see a sequel showing further changes in Afghan society after the overthrow of the Taliban and several years of rebuilding under the Western-backed Karzai government.