Friday, September 29, 2006

A Film on Afghanistan Needing Great Help

A Film on Afghanistan Needing Great Help


I saw the movie "At Five in the Afternoon," an Iranian film released in 2003, which depicts one poor family in Afghanistan.

I saw it today.
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Unbelievable mountains without tress and unthinkable fields without grass are really catching my eye.

A devastated and desolate palace on a barren hill surrounded by a sea of sand is, too, a wonder.

Old people who talk humane sense taking a slightly-monotonous poetic rhythm look so painful inwardly and outwardly, yet reflecting a deep social, traditional, cultural, and religious background
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U.S. helicopters were flying over a path on the barren land ; and the poor family, consisting of an old man, his daughter, her dying and eventually dead baby, and his dead son's wife as well as a tired horse and chickens, met a traveling older man whose donkey was dying and lying on the path.

The older man, himself collapsing, said, "My village was destroyed. Nothing was left. I want to get to Kandahar to see Mullah Omar. Bin Laden is our guest and a Muslim."

The chief of the poor family said, "You had better go back where you are from," digging a shallow pit on the ground with a big stone to burry his now-dead grandbaby.

The traveling old man sitting beside his dying donkey said, "My village was destroyed. Nothing was left. And nobody shows me the way."

While they were talking and the dead grandbaby was being laid down into a small, sandy grave, two young women were walking to a hill side where they could get the failed horse some water, as the old man told them to do so.
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The heroine of the story is the old man's daughter in law.

She attended a makeshift school in Kabul, while the family was wandering from place to place, and just wanted to change the world by becoming a politician.

She even asked a French soldier, patrolling around the ruined palace where the family happened to take shelter, how the president of France addressed to his people.
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Afghanistan had been a decent agricultural country since the Middle Age till the invasion by the Soviet Union in the late 20th century.

Decades of wars destroyed the entire country; but Islam has remained. People have been deprived of various hopes, but still have new dreams like the heroine has. Someday, a female president might be inaugurated in Afghanistan.
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If Afghanistan is saved, Iran then will be.

In fact, as some part of Iraq gets so dangerous, Iran may turn to a focal point of international security. But, so far, an Iranian film maker has set a focus on people not a war.
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On September 11, 2001, leaders of Al-Qaeda stationed in Afghanistan were waiting for a specific report on the United States to be attacked on the very day.

Since then, in the wake of various subsequent incidents, many, many people have been victimized.

But, I am one who has survived to this day just like you.

A film on Afghanistan has really reminded me of the grace the Lord has given me so that I can observe the proceeding of the world with a living mind.

But, for what?

And, for what for you?


"HAS SHOWN HIS GREATNESS BY SAVING HIS PEOPLE"