In her third feature, Iranian film maker Samira Makhmalbaf depicts the struggles of an Afghani woman, who under the new freedom, following the fall of the Taliban, tries to redefine herself as a woman. Opposing her fundamentalist father, who wants her to get a traditional religious education, she skips classes and goes to new school for girls. When addressed with the question, how many of the girls would want to become the first woman president of Afghanistan, she, along with two other students, expresses the desire.

In her redefining herself as woman, Noqreh, not only goes against traditional rules for courting, by forming a friendship with a man, but directly defies society by wearing a pair of white shoes.

Contra to this stands a country marked by death, starvation and poverty, which is overrun by former refugees coming from Pakistan. Searching for her sisters lost husband and escaping the blasphemy, they follow their father across Afghanistan. At the end, their journey ends in the desert. At five in the afternoon comes death. So begins the film, quoting Spanish poet Lorca, so ends the film, with the father burring his dead grandson, thus transposing the elegy of Lorca onto situation in Afghanistan: “The rest was death, and death alone at five in the afternoon.”

Awarded with the Jury prize at Cannes, this is not only the most ambitious film by Samira Makhmalbaf, but also her most mature work. Still co-written by her father, Mohsen, there is a sense of awareness and determination in both story and cinematography. There is a sensation of being proud of being a woman, as the film spends a lot of time with her gaze and her shoes. As such, Noqreh represents a new generation, that opposes, to a degree defies, the former generation and its traditions: Not only by wearing her shoes, but she lets her picture being taken and displayed public.

The film also is critical towards the “liberation” of Afghanistan. While the Taliban has fallen, democracy is but a fantasy, as the country is without infrastructure and basic needs as food and water. Makhmalbaf even satires the situation thru a French soldier, who has huge problems communicating with Noqreh and who states, that he is here for the good of the country, thereby suggesting the military actions and presence by the west towards a democratic society as naïve and pointless, which she underlines in an interview by suggesting a parallel between the current situation and Rambo: “Democracy, contrary to the claims of mass media, is not a project to be created overnight by military action or a change of regime.”

Henrik Sylow