dorothybishop-12911

You start out wondering why the Taliban gave access to Ibrahim Nash'at to film them - and indeed quite a few of those filmed are pretty hostile and complain about his presence. It becomes clear as the film progresses: they don't want to be liked but they do want to be feared, and as Nash'at's access is closely monitored, they do control the narrative to a large extent. Nash'at explained at the end that he wanted to interview ordinary Afghans but was forbidden from doing so.

At the start, there are some moments where the Taliban seem bumbling and incompetent. They can't believe their luck when they find the Americans have left behind huge amounts of military equipment, including helicopters and planes as well as ammunition, plus medical supplies and a fully-kitted-out gym. Initially apprehensive, as they explore the facility, they realise this is an incredible treasure trove. The problem is lack of experts who can fix the planes (which were disabled by the Americans) or fly them. But some rather terrified-looking pilots who had deserted are dug out and reprieved on condition they fly the aircraft, and the planes are mended so that they can take part in a huge military parade in front of visiting dignitaries at the end of the film.

There are disturbing scenes when squads set off at night to capture dissidents and extract information from them: we don't see any scenes of torture and killing, but it's clear they occurred.

I found the more mundane scenes, when an officer had meals with his men, or planted trees on the facility, notable for the tense interactions between the Taliban, even when alone. I realised that a characteristic of authoritarians is that they don't know how to have fun - they need to be feared and that means they must be taken seriously. This may explain why they don't want anyone else to have fun.

Also disturbing were rare scences of children: there was a brief shot of little girls dancing and laughing, but the other children in shot were little boys who were clearly being trained to grow into replicas of the war-mongering men they were with.

Women didn't really feature except as shrouded figures begging in the streets. There was a scene where the men discuss whether women should be veiled: one of the men gives what he clearly regards as a cast-iron argument in favour: if you had two chocolates and one was wrapped and the other dropped in the dirt, which would you eat? The idea that the chocolate might have a view on the matter would clearly be beyond his comprehension.