Afghan Luke

Let's welcome back the director of "Trailer Park Boys" Mike Clattenberg for what I believe is his second full length feature film and quiet a good one at that.

"Afghan Luke" stars a bunch of incredibly talented young actors/actresses my personal favorite of course Nick Stahl along with Stephen Lobo and Nicholas Wright. It's a drama that follows Luke Benning(Stahl) and the story he is attempting to write and prove about Canadian solider mutilating corpses in Afghanistan during the war. After initially being rejected Luke quits his paper to return to Afghanistan with his best friend Thom played by N.Wright where they attempt to gain proof of the story by heading across the country in search of the evidence.

Well what can I say, I suppose I will start with the cinematography the film is shot beautifully I believe in parts of British Columbia but had such great authenticity and really made you feel part of the journey. The dialog was very cleverly written along with some great comedic timing, everyone owns there roles, I was surprised to find all the cast were either American's or Canadians and with a multitude of dialects and accents throughout the film it was performed successfully, Nick stole the show leading us down the road the film ultimately takes.

On a limited budget a solid project raising questions and answers on war was carried out very well. Only thing missing was a good musical score which could have accompanied the film, and it was a little slow in it's build up. Warning alert to those easily offended there is a bit of drug use and plenty of heavy language throughout the film, but most is in context with the storytelling. If you are looking for a unique take on a journalistic point of view of the war this is much better then recent films "The Bang Bang Club" and "5 Days Of War" if your a fan of Nick like I am, it's one worth a viewing.

(2011) Afghan Luke DRAMA

Canadian freelance reporter/ journalist, Luke Benning (Nick Stahl) thinks he has witnessed from a distance a well renown Canadian sniper cutting a finger from each of his kills while fighting in Afghanistan. And upon going back to Canada, he tries to get it published, but with no avail he ends up getting fired for wanting to pursue it. So he decides to go back to Afghanistan to that exact same location where it all happened so that he can physically check on the bodies himself. From looking at the big picture, to make it a goal to convict a single person of war crimes, for something as trivial as checking up on people who're already dead and buried, you would've think that would have to be the least of his problems. I still have know idea why that is so important when they're worst things that happened in the war of Afghanistan, such as unreported sexual assaults of women in the military (The Invisible War), freelance shootings by covert operations and then cover up (Dirty Wars), and torture tactics at Guantanamo Bay, road side bombs, Taliban extremists targeting foreigners and Taliban extremists using children as martyrs, and I can go on forever. The other confusing aspect of this movie is the fact that viewers don't have any sense what this movie is about, is it about the reunification of Afghanistan people, the fact that they sell pot to make a living when their is nothing else, or to produce proper sanitation even though Taliban extremists also target foreign aid workers. This movie narrow mindedly addresses a small little problem out of something bigger. And as a result of them doing that, it kind of portray Luke Benning as an annoying douche.

Journalist Luke (Nick Stahl) believes he witnessed a Canadian soldier (a sniper known as Freddy Krueger) cutting off the fingers of a dead Taliban fighter as a trophy and feels this is a crime. No one believes him when he is back at the newspaper in Canada. He feels he must return to Afghanistan and get evidence.

The is a good story, simple and easy to follow. The acting performances and dialogues were spot on, but it was the photography that held me. It was extremely good. The movie was not shot in Afghanistan , but somewhere in Canada and the cinematography was fantastic. How did they do that? Kudos.

His friend Tom (Nicholas Wright) goes with him but is more interested in the high quality of drugs there. His one-time guide, called a fixer, Mateen (Stephan Lobo) constantly changes sides and says something like: Your enemy today is your future ally. And, we witness a War Lord who wants to be a music producer. There is some humor in these sub plots.

This is a different type of war story. Luke is on a mission to find the burial place where the Taliban fighters were shot. Although Luke had been in Afghanistan many times before, he is discovering that things have changed and is now more dangerous and the tension is higher as no one can suspect what will happen next.

This is a film most won't see because the actors are unknown and has a low budget, hence not much promotion. But, if the cinematography held me maybe it will hold you too and the story is a good one.

I know you are probably thinking you know the outcome of Luke's mission, but you don't. However, if you do know the outcome, book yourself on the Psychic tour. You will make a lot of money. The outcome is really good. HA! And, yes, I am ready for a sequel. (7/10)

Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: Yes, many f-bombs.

Is this movie worth seeing? It might be. It helps us to understand what our people are going through in a war that doesn't meet any of the traditional definitions. Mateen gives Luke an important quote which essentially means "There are no enemies. Only future allies." The reverse is also true.

And the people are poor and have to do what it takes to get by. Someone is making billions from the drugs, but not these people, and they resent being told what to do by outsiders.

This isn't a comedy, but for those who prefer comedy, there's just enough to make the movie tolerable. The quirky characters are enjoyable. Mateen, who is mostly comic relief, has a chance to be more than that when he experiences a tragedy.

It's not exactly family friendly, with numerous instances of the sound going out and a character's mouth blurred, middle fingers blurred (I assume), and the reality of war. For a movie about war, though, this is not that violent. I actually saw the fourth "Rambo" movie the day I saw this, and that was far worse.

It's not a classic, but maybe if you like war, it's something worth seeing.

This is a wonderful little movie. Directed and produced by the same guys as the Trailer Park Boys this is a completely different type of movie. Great work with the muted colours and the dust and dirt of Afghanistan. I don't know how they were able to make BC look like Afghanistan but it is believable and convincing in the movie. It is a little predictable and contrived in parts but the characters are believable and I was hooked in from the very beginning of the movie. The ending however was strong and didn't cave to be a predictable Hollywood want-a-be ending. This movie was easy to watch, easy to understand but still had enough subsistence to allow for great conversations afterwards.