I must say, Kandahar is a nice Iranian movie. It's about the reign of the Taliban, enough said, must practice self-censorship in this area. We can have a conversation about the movie over some Starbucks if it's interesting enough... about the social problems in Afghanistan and America and all... it is supposed to be a 'road' movie, a movie depicting a journey of an Afghan-Canadian journalist travelling back to save her sister from suicide, and the socio-political landscape of Afghanistan through her eyes and experience. The women are perpetually never seen because of the burqas they wear to cover themselves, which i'm not sure of the reason, whether it's oppression or the Taliban regime and the protagonist frequently asserts her female identity by lifting her burqa... she is supposedly liberated from the tradition of wearing the burqa and does not see it's significance, but to get into Kandahar, she will have to wear it to disguise herself, to be accepted...

Annoying factor: We never know if she gets to Kandahar or not, and what happens to her sister in the end. Miss Ng says it's because it is the journey that is important, not the ending, which is left open-ended. She said that we are so conditioned by the traditional Hollywood formula that a movie like this leaves us no closure when we want it. Haha. But i guess the purpose of this movie is to show the Iranian point of view of Afghanistan, so the sister thing is just a plot device for the character to persist in her journey and we are able to see the different situations that develop in such circumstances (the people with lost limbs rushing for prosthetic legs, and grave robbing, and highway bandits).

Interesting point: How come the boys have to move rhythmically when they are studying? The teacher then calls stop and they have to recite what they memorised. Lol.