Afghan Alphabet (2002)

I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Thanks to the German reviewer...I wasn't aware that this wasn't a documentary and was wondering the same thing....What really annoyed me about it was the constant barracking of the young girl, who didn't want to give her name, and was obviously very uncomfortable about removing her bhurka. I felt that the interviewer was being almost as oppressive as the people she had been trying to escape from, by pushing his own beliefs on her.....But now I know that it was fiction, I don't know what to think. It actually worries me more, the fact that they tried so hard to make it look like a documentary, made me angry before I had even known it was staged and put a political bias on it! This could construed as propaganda at its worst.....I'm giving it 3/10, simply because it did interest me whilst I was watching it!

I have seen this movie on television and it made me quite upset. It shows the problems of Afghan refugee children who want to learn but many of them aren't allowed to join an official school. Especially girls are still very afraid and misled by Mullahs.The problem with this movie is that it comes along as a documentary. I didn't realize that it was a movie and NOT a documentary. There were several scenes when I thought "Strange, how were they able to film this? Why does the girl allow them to film her now but not a few minutes ago? And why do those little girls talk to each other in such a mature way? They use phrases that sound odd from a little girl's mouth." Only today I realized that it was a movie. I think it should be clear if a piece of media is imagination or documentation. Otherwise the audience is misled.

This was shown as part of the National Film Festival here in Denmark and it was one of the best. It is not clear to me whether all the scenes are "real" or whether any of it is following a written plot. While I'd be interested to know, I don't think my view would be changed with regard to its validity.The subject is the attempts to initiate some education for Afghan refugee children in eastern Iran. It gives an idea of what life is like for these people. There are many awkward moments, as you would expect for children encountering some sort of schooling for the first time in their lives. Some of the boys have already had religious schooling in the mosque, but most of the Afghan boys are too poor to join in, so have had to stand away and learn what they can from a distance.The later part of the film concentrates more on the girls class, and is very intense and moving. I hope all these children may learn enough to help their societies to overcome the war and corruption which has deprived them of such basic rights.There were many new Arab films in the Danish festival, all those I saw were an education for me. Do try to see these films to get a better idea of the lives of real people and to learn how their culture works.