Inside Afghanistan (1988)

Inside Afghanistan examines the struggle for the future of Afghanistan between urbanized, Westernizing modernizers and the traditional Muslim world of the villages, still based on clan and feudal ties. Without preaching, the film breaks the stereotypes of Communist "puppets" and heroic "Freedom Fighters" to give the viewer a new understanding of the tragic and complex struggle for change in Afghanistan - a struggle that is far from over. Inside Afghanistan looks first at the educated, urban modernizers and reformers who saw a Soviet-style "revolution" as a way to bring Afghanistan into the modern world: army officers, women teachers and medical students, doctors at a children's hospital, boys at a Soviet orphanage, government officials, party members, and a rare interview with then-President Najibullah himself. We have tea with an Afghan captain, his Russian wife, and their two sons, as he explains the bond he feels with the other Afghan officers who trained in the Soviet Union. An Afghan colonel explains how these Soviet-trained army officers wanted to modernize their country, and so led the "revolution" that brought the Communists to power. The second half of the film focuses on the role of the "khans", the traditional land-owners who led the resistance to modernization. We visit several groups of ex- Mujahedin who now fight on the government side under the same khans who earlier had led them in their fight against the government. Under attack by Mujahedin at a remote outpost, we go to the nearby artillery base, which responds with a devastating barrage of rockets and howitzers. In the Kandahar prison, we meet two Taliban POWs, who in spite of torture tell us courageously that they still believe their cause is right. Finally, at a meal in his home, the governor of Kandahar province breaks down in tears as he tells us of the deaths of his sons in this long and bloody war.