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Niloufar Pazira, Hassan Tantai, Sadou Teymouri

Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf examines the troubling story of life in neighboring Afghanistan in this compelling drama. Nafas (Niloufar Pazira) is a reporter who was born in Afghanistan, but fle... read more read more...d with her family to Canada as a child, escaping the violence of the country's political instability. However, her sister wasn't so lucky; she lost her legs to a land mine while young, and when Nafas and her family left the country, her sister was accidentally left behind. Nafas receives a letter from her sister announcing that she's decided to kill herself during the final eclipse before the dawn of the 21st century; desperate to spare her sister's life, Nafas makes haste to Afghanistan, where she joins a caravan of refugees who, for a variety of reasons, are returning to the war-torn nation. As Nafas searches for her sister, she soon gets a clear and disturbing portrait of the toll the Taliban regime has taken upon its people. Also featuring Hassan Tantai and Sadou Teymouri, Safar E Gandehar was shown in competition at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Flixster Users

73% liked it

4,368 ratings

Critics

89% liked it

96 critics

PG, 1 hr. 25 min.

Directed by: Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Andrei Kavun

Release Date: January 1, 2001

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DVD Release Date: May 13, 2003

Stats: 227 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (227)

  • Yinali
    August 8, 2008
    Yinali
    Weird, didn't like it.
  • zeravenyoej
    December 7, 2007
    zeravenyoej
    Hmm This movie surprisingly kept my interest. Probably because it was so short. But I thought it had some disturbing, lyrical scenes. Worth a viewing, if you're feeling like learning about new cultures.
  • ileo
    November 2, 2010
    ileo
    An interesting movie that centralizes on a woman's journey to save her sister in a country she has not been to since childhood.
    Niloufar Pazira stars. Worthy!
  • mvieaddict
    August 4, 2010
    mvieaddict
    KANDAHAR was a semi-documentary movie that told the journey of an Afghani female journalist resident in Canada, Nafas, to reach the city of Kandahar, where she hoped to rescue her sister from committing suicide during an eclipse.The plot was very thin and the acting was frequent... read morely distracting, so it made it not a great drama. What was great, was the cinematography, filmed in the deserts of Afghanistan.. I liked the quote in the movie, when the doctor character said:"For women, hope is the day that they will be seen.The movie was a real and brutal portrayal of how women and children were treated in these countries. Disgusting.
  • HuskersNC949597
    April 2, 2012
    HuskersNC949597
    Most of the lines in English were not read particularly well, to say the least, but that's extremely secondary in this film.
  • wang90
    April 29, 2008
    wang90
    at first, i thought that this somehow would surpass OSAMA, or at least be at the same level with it. but along the way, i got dissappointed. fairly because of the storyline and the acting perhaps? the concept is quite good. a search for a suicidal younger sister sounds fine. but,... read more i do think that the older sister, the one who lives in canada is somehow rather dull. i don't feel her emotions. another flaw is a big ? on why the director didn't give too much credits in exploring the older sister's emotions after long gone from afghan instead he kept on babbling about goin to kandahar to give her sister a hope or whatever. moreover, it should give more rough descriptions on women's rights in afghan. but, instead of gettin the facts of the lives of women in afghan, i get more crappy talks on how she had to get to kandahar before the eclipse.... in the end, i think that the director should give much more credits to the women's lives in afghan instead of just focusing on how she would get to kandahar... not to mention the funny storyline about a male american who lives in afghan in search of GOD
  • thevivster
    December 12, 2007
    thevivster
    Subtly moving and it made me think. Scenes were short and straightforward and the colors were vibrantly exploitative

View All Kandahar Reviews

Critic Reviews

Jeff Strickler
November 6, 2002
Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune

It's a simple series of snapshots from a country in pain. Full Review

Richard Nilsen
March 29, 2002
Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic

Moves not like a story but a poem, and the images it presents to us are unforgettable.

Jay Boyar
March 14, 2002
Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel

Its themes are universal, its performances are effective in their simplicity and the direction is confident and unfussy.

Susan Stark
March 1, 2002
Susan Stark, Detroit News

Intense, anecdotal and empowered by perversely beautiful imagery.

Terry Lawson
March 1, 2002
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press

Perhaps best appreciated as a record of what life was like before the U.S. invasion and as a lesson in why the rest of the world should have cared even before the terrorist attacks. Full Review

Carrie Rickey
February 26, 2002
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer

Today, after the liberation of Kandahar, what was originally conceived by Makhmalbaf as a panorama of images of life during wartime may now serve as its eloquent epitaph.

Joe Baltake
February 15, 2002
Joe Baltake, Sacramento Bee

Kandahar is forbidding and unforgiving -- and, also, unforgettable. Full Review

Eric Harrison
February 15, 2002
Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle

The film is best appreciated as an open-ended 'fictional documentary' rather than a conventional feature with a beginning, middle and end. Full Review

Roger Ebert
February 15, 2002
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Kandahar does not provide deeply drawn characters, memorable dialogue or an exciting climax. Its traffic is in images. Full Review

Michael Wilmington
February 14, 2002
Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune

A window on an Iran and an Afghanistan we should have taken account of long ago -- seen though a master's eye, felt through a poet's touch. Full Review

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