AllMovie

Afghan Alphabet is a humane and heartbreaking look at the education (or lack thereof) of Afghan children who live in refugee camps within Iran. Renowned filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf succeeds fully in personalizing the plight of Afghan children, particularly girls, whom war, drought, and famine have left without an education. The children repeatedly demonstrate their determination to learn. Interviewed by the filmmakers, they express a touching enthusiasm for schooling. Later in the film, young boys undergoing religious training are interviewed -- confronted, really -- by the director, who's not willing to accept their rote answers as he questions them about their faith. Their palpable discomfort as he prods them on spiritual matters serves as a cunning critique of religious indoctrination. The boys are enthusiastic, mugging for the camera, sometimes grinning, shouting their answers, but the filmmaker can't quite provoke them to think for themselves. The last segment of the film, involving the reluctance of one young girl student to remove her burqa in order to participate in a class, furthers Makhmalbaf's point. The girl's fears are completely irrational, as the Taliban no longer exists in her life, but at the same time, the power of what she's struggling against, the subservient role she's been prepared for, is undeniable. It's doubly tragic to realize that had the girl been raised under different circumstances, her determination would serve her well. Makhmalbaf has often blurred the line between fiction and reality in his films, and while Afghan Alphabet begins as a straightforward documentary, it concludes on such an amazingly dramatic note that one can't help but suspect that the filmmaker had a hand in its outcome. Regardless, this doesn't detract from the film's worthiness. It's more of a philosophical question. The film's power and its canniness in making its points is undeniable.