Le voyage au Kâfiristân

All the reviews I read before seeing this were maddeningly vague as if the writers were trying desperately not to commit themselves. I can't see their problem, 'Journey to Kafiristan' is an outstanding film with two excellent performances from the leads; the cinematography is jawdroppingly good with the landscapes, interiors and close-ups all adding to the poignancy of the narrative; the music is astonishingly unobtrusive yet contributes to the mood and pace of the film. At the centre there is the performance of Jeanette Hain whose extraordinarily expressive face adds so much to the pathos of the situation. I can only guess that the reason this film did not catapult Ms Hain to international prominence is the 'stigma' of the lesbian character as with Patricia Charbonneau after 'Desert Hearts' or Gina Gershon after 'Bound' and 'Showgirls'. Jeanette Hain should be one of the world's most successful actors and directors should sit up and take note! Commercially the labelling of films seems inevitable as target audiences are identified for marketing purposes; but it can serve to reduce the potential audience. 'Journey to Kafiristan' is billed as a 'Lesbian Interest' film but it is much more, it deals with the rise of feminism in Europe in the inter-war period. Both lead characters have transparently fake marriages for convention's sake and exist outside the norm while still using their married status to protect them in dangerous situations. If you're looking for GIRL-ON-GIRL action you would be better off looking elsewhere for while this is a love story it is cerebral and emotional rather than carnal.I cannot praise 'Journey to Kafiristan' highly enough.

When the movie started and after reading the title, the first thing that I was thinking was: Where could Kafiristan possibly be situated? I really didn't have a clue and I didn't think that it had something to do with the language. I know German and since my own language (Dutch) is very close to it, I was convinced that it wouldn't be a country or a region that we use a completely different name for. But than again, this was only one of the many mysteries about this movie...

"Die Reise nach Kafiristan" tells the story of two women who decide to travel together by car to Afghanistan in 1939, but each is in pursuit of their own project. Annemarie Schwarzenbach is an author who wants to find out more about herself and Ella Maillart is a Swiss ethnologist who has traveled the entire world to meet and study new tribes and people. Both women have a completely different nature and there is only one thing that really bonds them: Their eternal restlessness and the urge to leave the world of politics and a possible war behind them. But history keeps catching up and they never really can escape.

I'm convinced that many people will not like this movie and if I'm honest, neither did I in the beginning. The reason for that is quite simple. This movie isn't some easy entertainment that offers at least one solution to every question that it asks. No, the makers of the movie have decided to stay very vague by only giving you a hint of what they are trying to say. Dialogs are left uncompleted and sometimes the women don't even speak at all, feelings are never really expressed, but are always present and obvious for the viewer who wants to see them... That's of course not something that you will see in every movie and it sure takes some time to get used to.

After a while I really started to like this movie. The landscapes look nice, but they are only there to emphasize the feelings of desolation and complete isolation. In my opinion you have to try to see the beauty of the touching psychological 'landscapes'. It's in their minds that the women go through deep valleys and over high mountain tops as their feelings sometimes clash, but are very parallel at the same time. I know that sounds a bit weird, but that's about the best explanation I can give to it. I guess you just have to watch it for yourself to fully understand what I mean.

As a conclusion I would like to say that this is a very nice psychological road movie that will be loved most by an audience who is used to watch 'alternative' cinema. Don't try this movie when you are only used to watch Hollywood blockbusters, because you just will not like it then. Personally I'm quite used to watch this kind of movies and I must say that this is definitely one of the better in the genre. It's too bad that it sometimes was a bit slow, but I still give it a 7.5/10.

The movie's storyline is pat and quaint. Two women travel through the middle east and discover themselves. Unfortunately, if you are looking for a movie about the middle east and central Asia this is absolutely terrible.

The producers of the film either did no research or were unbelievably lazy when filming it. To begin with, and most glaringly incorrect, the Nuristanis, as they were known in the thirties, and indeed since the 1890s and their forceful conversion by Abdul-Rahman Shah of Aghnaistan, were not nomads. In fact they have not been nomads since the Aryan invasions of central Asia over three milenia ago.

Second, the city that is filmed as Tehran is not Tehran, which is understandable, however the geography of the area around the city could not be more strikingly DIFFERENT than the city of Tehran, which is surrounded on all side by a large mountain range, which predominates all of the cities views.

Third, Persian, despite the fact it is spoken in Iran and Afghanistan, is never heard in movie. When there are native speakers who do not speak in German they speak in Arabic. The 'Persian' guards at the border, in fact, say to each other 'Ma hadha rujal' (This is not a man) and not 'in mard nist' as it would be in Persian. Also, the love song between the Indian princess and one of the main characters is obviously in Spanish. While talking in the garden one of the main characters says that the Quran uses the words 'Ferdos' and 'jehaan' and makes some reference to drugs afterwords. These words certainly never appear in the Quran as they are Persian for Paradise (indeed, Ferdos and Paradise are very distant cognates between our languages) and 'World' respectively, though Jehaan is admittedly close to 'Jehennan' which is hell in Arabic. When they encounter the nomads in the desert the language spoken is also Arabic, this despite the fact that there are NO native speakers of Arabic in Iran and Afghanistan and its use is primarily religious, with some use in education at that time.

When they are stopped in Iran before they reach the Afghan border the people they encounter are wholly unlike any Iranian group. Their tents are typically bedouin with carpets decorating the walls and a high profile. In Iran it is also extremely uncommon for people to wear Turbans unless they are a cleric. The language spoken is clearly Arabic from the initial greeting of 'Ahlan wa Sahlan.' When they do reach Kabul the desert they find themselves in is sandy, totally unlike the rock dirt that is found in the arid parts of the Hindu Kush mountain range. There is an absence of the light green scrub that covers the ground in the summer and spring. The area is also not wholly consumed by the extreme mountains of the mountain range that won its name, The Indian Killers, because of its difficult and limiting ground.

In short, the story line is the only thing in this movie that holds any water and it is still weak and common place. It lacks any real draw to it, being merely the tale of two women trying to learning about themselves as they get to Nuristan, however, even that is still-born and no real development is felt, leaving the characters in the end just where they were in the beginning and nothing has changed except that world war two has broken loose. In short, this is a really bad movie that I would have rated at one star except for the good footage of Bedouin and the deserts of the Levant, even if they are misnamed.

Whatever the merits of the film, it is poorly researched. As others have pointed out, the movie shows locals in Iran speaking in Arabic, rather than Persian. That is enough to lose credibility for anyone who has the slightest knowledge of the area or the country. The landscape could not be more different from the actual.

Other factual errors: A train is shown to be operating in Afghanistan, while Afghanistan does not have railways. The Turkish ambassador is wearing a Fez (the red hat), whereas the Fez was banned by Turkey much before the time in which the movie is set. The Turkish ambassador's daughter is actually dressed as an Indian, and Indian classical music is playing in the background in many scenes. I suppose the filmmakers meant to show an exotic woman, and sari was what they decided would make her exotic.

This film is probably not to everyone's taste. Yes, it is slow, yes, the plot is paper thin, but ... it is a film to day-dream about, it transports the willing viewer to far-away lands on a wonderful journey made by two women on the eve of WWII. The exteriors provide a nice backdrop to the inevitable journeys of self-discovery of the two protagonists. The fact that the tension between tends to stay below the surface is never fully expressed only adds rather than distracts from the interest. In fact, I would say the subtle way in which possible storylines are suggested rather than made explicit only enhances the movie, and this is reinforced by its lack of closure. Strongly recommended.