Reviews

I really pushed myself in order to follow the movie up to the end. I lived in Afghanistan for 2 years as journalist. I spent in Bamian my vacations because it is so safe place to walk around. And I know very well places where the shooting has been done as well Hazaras. Problem is, that the subject of this film is so inappropriate because of nature of Hazaras - ethnic group who live in Bamian region. For a start - Hazaras are most depressed minority group in Afghanistan. Over history there have been a lot of massacres of Hazaras, and last one was 2001-2002 by Taliban. So it is most shocking to look at the feature film where little Hazara boys pretend to be Talibs - it is the same like to make a movie of Jude boys pretending to be Nazis… Secondly, Hazaras are most tolerant group inside Afghanistan (only Nuristanis are more tolerant, but they live in borderlands of Pakistan). There is no problem for women to walk around without burka (they like very colourful scarves). If you travel around you can see a lot of very simple schooling around – just school desks outside, even no cover or tent. There is no problem to study together – boys and girls – under 10. I have seen even 12-years old together in one classroom in Bamian. It could be very nice documentary of schools at Bamian. Nature is superb and people are just great. I was sad that young Iranian lady has not done her homework before shooting.

Good actors, good location, good directing and good soundtrack makes this movie tolerable. But luck of original idea, unfortunately. It started quite promising - eerie island, strange people, confusing hints. But there was no progress within story, it was all the same, just repeating. And after a while it was quite disappointment to realize - after seeing 1/3 of movie - that you know exactly how it goes on and what is the point. I was a little bit sad because some movies of Scorsese have been real masterpieces. But from other hand it is understandable that it is extremely hard to produce every movie like 10-point-masterpiece.