Safar e Ghandehar

In Persian, the ancient proverb "Where are you going? I am going to Kandahar" evokes the idea of a long and arduous journey, or difficult quest. Mohsen Makhmalbaf illustrates this quest by following a young female journalist, originally from Afghanistan but now living in Canada following the civil war with the Taliban. The young woman has decided to make a voyage to Kandahar, now the capital of the southern region controlled by the Taliban, in order to save the life of her sister who has announced that she is going to commit suicide. In filming this woman as she crosses a country that she no longer recognises, Makhmalbaf keeps his distance in order to film the hidden pain of so many women, lost without faces. After the evocative and moving film Le Tableau noir, directed by Samira Makhmalbaf, Iranian cinema returns once again to the theme of education.