Why you can trust 12DOVE Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.
The humanitarian tragedy currently engulfing Afghanistan has given Mohsen Makhmalbaf's polemical Kandahar a phenomenal topicality, prompting President Bush to demand a screening.
Filmed in neighbouring Iran, this semi-fictionalised drama is structured around a quest. Nafas (Nelofar Pazira), an exiled Afghan journalist, returns to her homeland in an effort to prevent her sister from committing suicide. Having crossed the border, a disguised Nafas is guided towards the sacred city of Kandahar - - first by a young boy, then by an African-American Muslim doctor, and finally by a peasant seeking a pair of artificial limbs for his wife...
Kandahar depicts a country ravaged by war, poverty and disease, where women have been stripped of the most basic civil rights by the Taliban regime. Makhmalbaf uses surrealistic imagery - - amputees racing across the desert on crutches to pick up prosthetic legs dropped by parachutes - - to convey a grotesque reality.
Wicked director says he knew he'd captured movie magic with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande on the very first day of shooting
Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein gets spooky first look with Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi
Are mobile controllers too small for your hands? You need to know about this Black Friday deal
