Why Didn't Anybody Tell Me It Would Become This Bad in Afghanistan

The battleground of Afghanistan haunts the experimental Dutch film "Why Didn't Anybody Tell Me It Would Become This Bad in Afghanistan." Director Cyrus Frisch's first-person narrative - if it can be called that - was shot almost entirely on a cell phone, and the result is something between an impressionist rendering of Amsterdam and a Hans Hoffmann canvas in motion. More than anything else, this 70-minute document of a day in the life of a Dutch veteran of the Afghanistan war reveals a state of mind terrorism has introduced to the West: the fragmented image, the trembling camera-phone, the vague sense of menace are all part of it. Mr. Frisch's unconventional cinema may not be for everyone, but this is that rare film in which Afghanistan really gets under your skin. Review by Darrell Hartman, writer/filmproducer