Motherland Afghanistan (Documentary)
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: C Documentary: B
U.S.
foreign policy has been hijacked by people in power for war profiteer and
exploitation reasons so bad, that the implications are flying over the heads of
others. The bait-and-switch between
Afghanistan/The Taliban/Bin Laden to Iraq/Hussein shows unbelievable ignorance
on the part of so many who should know better and while the media ignores how
The Taliban (supported and/or left alone by too many in the free world to grow)
has grown again. Sedika Mojadidi’s Motherland Afghanistan (2006) is a documentary
that shows this very indirectly.
The
director’s father is a doctor who has to work under the crazy and often
subhuman, substandard conditions in Afghanistan against terrorism, poverty,
ignorance, insane infant mortality rates and much more. Dr. Qudrat Mojadidi is a hero when all is
said and done, too often burdened with being the only lifeline in a place where
powerful insiders and outsiders seem to care less, especially when it comes to
women.
An
outrageous situation, Dr. Mojadidi is amazingly practical and enduring under
all the terrible dilemmas he faces. When
all is said and done, it is The United Nations that look like the villain in
some of this, allowing third world conditions in a country that is now #1 in
poppy fields. Without being political, Motherland Afghanistan is an important
portrait of a country abandoned to the wolves and a general carelessness that
is the disgrace of the world community.
No wonder democracy has such a tough time taking hold in such
Islamo-Fascist parts of the world.
The 1.33
x 1 image was shot on digital video and is slightly strained and soft, but this
is a documentary and we’re lucky we got to see some of these shots at all. The Dolby Digital 2.0 is simple stereo at
best and always location sound. Hardly
any older footage is here either, thought the Taliban blowing up ancient Buddha
statues are rightly included here. Extras
include brief text bios of the five persons who made this work possible,
deleted scenes that could have easily stayed in and four trailers for other
First Run releases.
- Nicholas Sheffo
