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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

67
$9.99
75
24 City
66
Adoration
74
Afghan Star
48
Alien Trespass
56
American Violet
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
57
Away We Go
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
62
Big Man Japan
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55
Brothers Bloom, The
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
xx
Call of the Wild
63
Cheri
62
Cherry Blossoms
63
Dead Snow
65
Departures
18
Downloading Nancy
58
Easy Virtue
70
End of the Line, The
77
Every Little Step
64
Examined Life
80
Food, Inc.
38
Gigantic
56
Girl from Monaco, The
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
87
Gomorrah
89
Goodbye Solo
63
Great Buck Howard, The
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Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx
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91
Hurt Locker, The
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Julia
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40
Limits of Control, The
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Management
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Merry Gentleman, The
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Moon
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New York
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Not Forgotten
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Outrage
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Paris 36
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Pontypool
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Pressure Cooker
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Revanche
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Rudo y Cursi
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Seraphine
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Sex Positive
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Shall We Kiss?
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Sin Nombre
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Sleep Dealer
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Song of Sparrows, The
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Sugar
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Summer Hours
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Tokyo Sonata
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Tokyo!
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Tony Manero
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88
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Two Lovers
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U2 3D
60
Under Our Skin
69
Unmistaken Child
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
22
What Goes Up
45
Whatever Works
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
91
Hurt Locker, The
89
Goodbye Solo
88
Tulpan
87
Gomorrah
86
Seraphine
84
Summer Hours
83
U2 3D
83
Revanche
83
Tyson
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
82
Sugar
82
Hunger
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
81
Il Divo
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
80
Food, Inc.
80
Tokyo Sonata
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
78
O'Horten
77
Every Little Step
77
Sin Nombre
75
24 City
74
Treeless Mountain
74
Afghan Star
74
Two Lovers
74
Song of Sparrows, The
74
Lemon Tree
71
Pressure Cooker
71
Jerichow
70
Shall We Kiss?
70
Tony Manero
70
End of the Line, The
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
69
Unmistaken Child
67
$9.99
67
Rudo y Cursi
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
66
Adoration
66
Moon
65
Sex Positive
65
Departures
64
Outrage
64
Examined Life
64
Throw Down Your Heart
64
Lymelife
63
Tokyo!
63
Cheri
63
Dead Snow
63
Tetro
63
Great Buck Howard, The
62
Cherry Blossoms
62
Big Man Japan
62
Not Forgotten
61
Sunshine Cleaning
60
Under Our Skin
59
Sleep Dealer
58
Julia
58
Easy Virtue
57
Away We Go
57
Merry Gentleman, The
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
56
Girl from Monaco, The
56
American Violet
55
Brothers Bloom, The
54
Is Anybody There?
54
Pontypool
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
52
Quiet Chaos
50
Management
48
Alien Trespass
45
Whatever Works
42
Little Ashes
42
Tennessee
40
Limits of Control, The
40
Paris 36
38
Gigantic
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
35
New York
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
28
Surveillance
22
What Goes Up
18
Downloading Nancy
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
xx
Call of the Wild
xx
Home
xx
Offshore
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Kandahar
Avatar Films
MPAA RATING: Not Rated
Starring
Niloufar Pazira,
Hassan Tantai,
and
Sadou Teymouri
Set in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, this is the story of Nafas (Pazira), a young female journalist who escaped the country to grow up in Canada and who returns incognito, smuggled in, to save her younger sister.
| GENRE(S): |
Suspense/Thriller
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Mohsen Makhmalbaf
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Mohsen Makhmalbaf
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: May 13, 2003
Video: May 13, 2003
Theatrical: December 14, 2001
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
85 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
France / Iran |
| LANGUAGE(S): |
English / Farsi (with English subtitles) |
Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, 2001 Cannes Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
Presented without preachiness or affectation, Kandahar is a short, matter-of-fact visit to hell.

100
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
Makhmalbaf's astounding and haunting imagery tells a story of devastation, desperation and poverty.

91
Portland Oregonian
Staff (Not credited)
The director manages to maintain a steady streak of grim humor. Extreme repression can be bleakly funny in its idiocy, when viewed from a distance.

90
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
Though it might lack in Hollywood production values, it overflows with moral impact.

90
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
You won't forget this film -- it's devastating.

90
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Thomas
This remarkably revealing and timely film, in which the depiction of pain and sorrow is suffused with a sense of beauty and a graceful, flowing style, more than lives up to glowing advance notices.

89
Austin Chronicle
Marrit Ingman
The story is simple and true-to-life, and the technique is naturalistic, using nonprofessional actors, photography that emphasizes the characters' environment, and deliberate narrative pacing that mimics real-time events.

88
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Kandahar does not provide deeply drawn characters, memorable dialogue or an exciting climax. Its traffic is in images.

88
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
Watching this film wakes you up; it is 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.

88
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
Kandahar found itself in real-life controversy last December, when one of its actors was accused of murder.

88
Boston Globe
Loren King
A bleak road movie that often ambles. But its many moments of poetic grace make this haunting and harrowing journey a rewarding one.

80
The New Yorker
David Denby
Abrupt and fragmentary, but powerful. [Dec 10 2001, p. 111]
80
Film Threat
Rich Cline
The result is stunning -- both as a narrative film and as a document of the place and time.

80
Variety
Deborah Young
A visually exalting, emotionally horrifying view of Afghanistan under the Taliban regime.

80
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
That's the movie: It's taking us inside the burqa to the woman.

75
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
While it's often harsh in style and melancholy in subject, Kandahar taps into veins of humor and compassion as well.

75
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
What proves the validity of Kandahar is that, by the end, all these scenes are human ruins of the same nightmare world.

75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
Pazira, whose sapphire eyes blaze through the lattice of her slate-gray burqa, isn't much of an actress, as her singsong narration attests. But when not speaking, she has a commanding presence and is an effective witness to the ravages of war.

75
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
The world's newfound familiarity with the region's troubles only make Kandahar more compelling.

70
Salon.com
Andrew O'Hehir
A stark and beautiful film traces a Afghan woman's journey across a landscape we may never understand.

70
Village Voice
J. Hoberman
The movie feels truncated, but it communicates a certain urgency and at times a powerful sense of the absurd.

70
TV Guide
Ken Fox
Makhmalbaf shot this film under extremely difficult circumstances, and it sometimes shows; but it's still an important achievement.

67
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
With its lyrical vision of oppression, looks, if anything, milder now than it might have before the war.

63
New York Post
Jonathan Foreman
Unfortunately, you are often distractingly aware that you are watching re-enactments of real events.

63
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
Among the unforgettable images is that of artificial limbs floating to earth on parachutes, while below, one-legged men on crutches race each other to the prizes.

60
New Times (L.A.)
Luke Y. Thompson
A film worth your time, and if you know going into it that there's no closure, it'll give you all the more freedom to enjoy what IS there.

60
Chicago Reader
Staff (Not Credited)
The acting is mainly horrendous, the English dialogue frequently awkward, but they're overcome by the beautiful colors and settings and a grim sense of the uncanny spilling over into twisted humor.

50
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
Kandahar feels like a Magritte painting rendered in sand tones, and your eyes are drawn to the screen. There aren't enough of these moments, though, and Mr. Makhmalbaf lessens their power by repeating them.


The average user rating for this movie is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes
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