09.07.2006 | Posted at 7:46 pm by premii
The Pakistani film “Shame,” which receives its world premiere at Toronto, tells the true story of Mukhtaran Mai, who was ordered gang-raped by her village’s elders for a crime her brother was accused of committing. Instead of killing herself as was expected, she fought back and became an international human rights symbol. But she still has many enemies at home.
Also dealing with the subject of rape is the Indian film “A Cry in the Dark,” a documentary about mass protests against the death of a girl in police custody after she was raped.
“Kabul Express,” from Indian director Kabir Khan, takes a wry look at the aftermath of the Afghan war from the perspective of three reporters who forge an unlikely friendship with a Taliban fighter. Filmed in late 2005, it was the first international movie to be made entirely in Afghanistan since the Taliban were forced out of power.
Toronto film festival starts on grim note
09.03.2006 | Posted at 12:56 am by premii
The Star’s movie critic Geoff Pevere have previewed Kabul Express, one of the eighty entries at the Toronto International Film Festival, which begins Thursday.
Imagine a late-’80s action buddy comedy transplanted to Afghanistan in the weeks following Sept. 11, 2001. Then imagine it translated into Hindi and starring a couple of guys (the impossibly handsome John Abraham and the Bob Hope-like chicken-hearted Arshad Warsai) who crack wise, call each other dude and bicker collegially while the bombs explode and the bullets fly. Imagine a movie that opens with a shot of the World Trade Center attack and closes with a gag about Osama Bin Laden disguised as a donkey, and imagine one of the most howlingly inept performances - by someone named Linda Arsenio as an American photojournalist - in the entire history of global sound cinema. That’s Kabul Express in a nutshell, my candidate for the most sublimely terrible movie in this year’s festival.
08.31.2006 | Posted at 6:07 pm by premii
Kabul Express, by director Kabir Khan has been invited to participate in the London Film Festival as well as the Pusan Film Festival. It is already going to the Toronto Film Festival. While the London Film festival will be held from 18 October to November 2, the Pusan Film Festival be held from the 12 to 20 October. Says Yash Chopra, “It is very prestigious for us that a movie like Kabul Express has officially received invitations to be among the prestigious festivals in the world – and to be with the best in world cinema.
Friday, September 15 @ 6:00 PM
Theater: VISA SCREENING ROOM (ELGIN)
Saturday, September 16 @ 9:30 AM
Theater: PARAMOUNT 1
