review for Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi on AllMovie

Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi is an insightful and timely look at the harsh reality of wartime Afghanistan. The film is densely packed, as filmmaker Ian Olds navigates the treacherous waters of Afghani politics, in telling the tragic story of the eponymous translator/guide. The murderous Taliban are on one side, a venally corrupt and incompetent occupation-backed transitional government on the other, and Olds does a good job of showing how the increasingly cynical and despondent Afghan citizenry are stuck in the middle. Olds also raises ethical questions about the role of foreign journalists in Afghanistan, as he examines the fraught friendship between Naqshbandi and journalist Christian Parenti. Parenti, who served as a producer on the film, is clearly a decent sort, concerned with Naqshbandi's safety and interested in getting to know him as a person. It's also clear that Parenti's job, which serves an important function, would be impossible without Naqshbandi and others like him. But Fixer makes it clear that the relationship is also unavoidably exploitative, and that becomes painfully obvious as Parenti moves on, and Naqshbandi is kidnapped while working with another journalist. While the Taliban views Naqshbandi as a traitor, Olds's interviews with the fixer's justifiably angry friends and family paint a much more complex portrait of the doomed young man. Fixer offers a stunning, intricate, and sometimes despairing view of a complex and dangerous world, unseen by most Westerners.