# Kandahar (سفر قندهار) (2001 film)
**Kandahar** (Persian: سفر قندهار, *Safar-e Ghandehar*, "Journey to Kandahar") is a 2001 Iranian film directed and written by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, set in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. It follows Nafas, an Afghan-born journalist living in Canada, who crosses illegally from Iran into Afghanistan to reach her sister in Kandahar before the sister carries out a planned suicide at the coming solar eclipse.[1](https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/socstud/cinema_gr12/full_doc.pdf) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kandahar_le_soleil_derriere_la_lune) The film premiered in competition at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival a few months before the [September 11 attacks](https://www.edgepedia.org/september-11-attacks), and its international visibility rose sharply afterward.[3](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/kandahar/1597499)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | *Safar-e Ghandehar* (سفر قندهار), also released as *The Sun Behind the Moon*[4](https://hpspa.info/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/History-of-Persian-Scientists-Poets_eBook.pdf) |
| Director and writer | Mohsen Makhmalbaf[1](https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/socstud/cinema_gr12/full_doc.pdf) |
| Production | Makhmalbaf Film House (Iran) and Bac Films (France); 2001, 35 mm, color, 85 minutes[5](https://www.d8.makhmalbaf.com/en/film/kandahar) |
| Setting | Afghanistan under Taliban rule; filmed mostly in Iran, partly in Afghanistan[1](https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/socstud/cinema_gr12/full_doc.pdf) |
| Lead | Nelofer Pazira as Nafas, an Afghan-Canadian journalist[6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/kandahar/) |
| Cannes 2001 | Nominated for the Palme d'Or; won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury[7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0283431/awards/) |
| Other honors | Federico Fellini Medal from UNESCO (2001); Freedom of Expression Award from the National Board of Review (2001)[5](https://www.d8.makhmalbaf.com/en/film/kandahar) • [7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0283431/awards/) |
## Spoilers
### Story
Nafas was born in Afghanistan and fled with her family to Canada as a child, but her sister was left behind and lost her legs to a land mine. A letter from the sister announces that she will kill herself during the final solar eclipse before the dawn of the 21st century, and Nafas travels to Iran and crosses the border into Taliban-controlled Afghanistan to stop her.[8](https://www.filmaffinity.com/en/movie-awards.php?movie-id=192653) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kandahar_le_soleil_derriere_la_lune) Disguised in a burka and posing as a wife traveling with a family, she crosses a desert landscape where she meets bandits, marooned exiles, Red Cross workers, and crowds of land-mine victims, coming within sight of Kandahar as the film ends.[9](https://www.arabfilm.com/item/273/)
The eclipse deadline carries an allegorical meaning the director made explicit: the sister's time limit stands for the warning that there is not much time left for Afghanistan itself.[10](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=18&pyear=2001)
## Production and basis in fact
The film is a semi-documentary, a blend of documentary and fiction rather than a political pamphlet, and most of its cast are not professional actors playing themselves.[3](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/kandahar/1597499) • [1](https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/socstud/cinema_gr12/full_doc.pdf) It was shot mostly in Iran, with some filming inside Afghanistan.[1](https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/socstud/cinema_gr12/full_doc.pdf) Makhmalbaf had visited Herat secretly during Taliban rule to prepare the shoot, and the story draws on his own observations of a country where, by the festival program's account, 2.5 million people had died of hunger and war over twenty years and 6.5 million lived as refugees.[11](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/jan/11/artsfeatures) • [10](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=18&pyear=2001)
The lead has a direct connection to the material. Nelofer Pazira, an Afghan-Canadian journalist, in the late 1990s had herself tried to reenter Afghanistan through Iran in search of a childhood friend whose letters about life under the Taliban had grown increasingly desperate; the film's story is inspired by that real attempt.[12](https://www.salon.com/2001/12/14/kandahar/) • [9](https://www.arabfilm.com/item/273/)
Among its best-known images is a sequence in which one-legged men on crutches race to claim artificial limbs dropped from the sky by helicopter, a scene the director repeats at the film's opening.[13](https://analepsis.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2010-historical-dictionary-of-middle-eastern-cinema-t-ginsberg-c-lippard.pdf) • [14](https://www.screendaily.com/kandahar-safar-e-ghandehar/405845.article)
## Reception and awards
At Cannes 2001 the film competed for the [Palme d'Or](https://www.edgepedia.org/palme-dor) and won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury.[7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0283431/awards/) The FIPRESCI jury at the Thessaloniki Film Festival cited its "visionary, poetic, yet unsparing revelation of human suffering in conflict-torn Afghanistan."[7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0283431/awards/) Other honors include the Federico Fellini Medal from UNESCO in Paris, the Public Prize at the Festival des Cinemas du Sud, a Best Actress Award for Pazira at the Montreal Nouveau Cinema festival, and the [National Board of Review](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-board-of-review)'s Freedom of Expression Award.[5](https://www.d8.makhmalbaf.com/en/film/kandahar) • [7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0283431/awards/) IMDb records 4 wins and 6 nominations in total.[7](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0283431/awards/)
Critics responded strongly. On the review aggregator Metacritic the film scored 76 out of 100 based on 28 reviews, and Rotten Tomatoes lists an 89% Tomatometer from 100 reviews with the critics' consensus "Eerily timely, Kandahar offers haunting images of a bleak land."[6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/kandahar/) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kandahar_le_soleil_derriere_la_lune) Variety called it "a visually exalting, emotionally horrifying view of Afghanistan under the Taliban regime," while A.O. Scott of The New York Times compared its imagery to a Magritte painting in sand tones but found the repeated tableaux weakened their power.[6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/kandahar/) In 2005, Time magazine named it one of the hundred best films in the history of world cinema, according to the director's official site.[15](https://d8.makhmalbaf.com/fa/film/sfr-qndhar)
## Timing and the September 11 attacks
The film's reception is inseparable from its release date. It premiered at Cannes in May 2001, a few months before the [Al-Qaeda](https://www.edgepedia.org/al-qaeda) attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, and then screened at many festivals; before the attacks it had drawn little international interest, after which demand rose sharply.[3](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/kandahar/1597499) • [16](https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1099&context=jigs) Reviewers noted that American audiences barely recognized Kandahar as the name of an Afghan city when the film premiered, and that the film's depiction of daily life under the Taliban gave its post-September 11 audience a background the news was suddenly demanding.[17](https://www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/amphtml/2001/1214/p15s3-almo.html) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kandahar_le_soleil_derriere_la_lune)
## References
1. [Kandahar, Feature Film Study, Grade 12 Cinema as a Witness to Modern History, Manitoba Education](https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/socstud/cinema_gr12/full_doc.pdf)
2. [Kandahar, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kandahar_le_soleil_derriere_la_lune)
3. [Kandahar, Eye Filmmuseum](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/kandahar/1597499)
4. [History of Persian Scientists and Poets (eBook)](https://hpspa.info/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/History-of-Persian-Scientists-Poets_eBook.pdf)
5. [Kandahar, Makhmalbaf Film House official site](https://www.d8.makhmalbaf.com/en/film/kandahar)
6. [Kandahar, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/kandahar/)
7. [Kandahar (2001) Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0283431/awards/)
8. [All the awards and nominations of Kandahar, FilmAffinity](https://www.filmaffinity.com/en/movie-awards.php?movie-id=192653)
9. [Kandahar, Arab Film Distribution](https://www.arabfilm.com/item/273/)
10. [Kandahar program note, Busan International Film Festival archive, 2001](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=18&pyear=2001)
11. [The condemned, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, The Guardian, 11 January 2002](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/jan/11/artsfeatures)
12. [Kandahar, Salon.com, 14 December 2001](https://www.salon.com/2001/12/14/kandahar/)
13. [Historical Dictionary of Middle Eastern Cinema](https://analepsis.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2010-historical-dictionary-of-middle-eastern-cinema-t-ginsberg-c-lippard.pdf)
14. [Kandahar (Safar E Ghandehar) review, Screen Daily, 31 May 2001](https://www.screendaily.com/kandahar-safar-e-ghandehar/405845.article)
15. [سفر قندهار, Makhmalbaf official site (Persian)](https://d8.makhmalbaf.com/fa/film/sfr-qndhar)
16. [The Iranian Meditation of Afghanistan in International Art House Cinema, Journal of International and Global Studies](https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1099&context=jigs)
17. ['Kandahar' illuminates a troubled region, The Christian Science Monitor, 14 December 2001](https://www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/amphtml/2001/1214/p15s3-almo.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2000s › Biographical and historical drama films 2000s › Released 2000 to 2005*
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