10/10
Baluch struggle for freedom
24 September 2011
It's a great movie. Its story is nice and real. Kandahar Break in its attempt to highlight Afghanistan as a brutal place before British and American troops removed the Taliban leaders. And it also shows Baloch freedom fighters of Baluchistan struggle for an independent Baluchistan.

Afghanistan as a place under Taliban rulers may no longer exist, but Kandahar Break attempts to take us back there with a story about love, loss and revenge. Rather than a film about war, it's more about a man's personal journey and what happens when he finds love in a place which forbids it. Tatmain Ul Qulb as Jamilah, the woman he falls in love with, is beautiful and captivating. Her time on screen though limited to flashbacks is enough to make her presence felt throughout. As a love story, I would have liked to have seen it from her perspective and to learn why she would risk everything for an affair with Richard.

As an outsider in Afghanistan, Richard has no idea about the rules, customs and the religion of the people there. As he makes no attempt to learn about any of these, he finds himself singled out as an infidel. When met with hostility he protests that he is English and pleads for them to speak English with him. I've come to know from several of my own travels that by learning even a few words of a country's language, you are more likely to receive a warmer reception than by not doing so. Richard's affair with Jamilah follows a similar pattern, and though we see why he would fall in love with her, I found it hard to see why she would reciprocate.
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