The eye-opening documentary shows how the fizzy ‘American Idol’ concept becomes something profound and unique when set in war-ridden Afghanistan.
By KENNETH TURAN, Film Critic
July 24, 2009
If you believe that bringing the questionable virtues of “American Idol” to Afghanistan would do that beleaguered nation no favors, the remarkable documentary “Afghan Star” will change your mind in an instant.
For this eye-opening film reveals that even systems as dubious as the “Idol” format mean dramatically different things when transferred to radically dissimilar cultures. In the context of Afghanistan, the show’s core idea becomes moving, dramatic and significant in ways it simply isn’t in the West.
In the process of letting us in on all that, “Afghan Star” also tells us considerably more about the current state of that country — where the only known pig is in a zoo and women in burkas rush to take cellphone photographs — than a more sober-minded film could manage.
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