olrovin This was such a well done documentary that gave me a completely new perspective on the country of Afghanistan and its people. I cannot believe that music was banned in Afghanistan for about 20 years and only recently (the early 2000s) was it finally allowed again. Afghan Star is the first and only singing talent competition TV show that Afghanistan has ever had. It is such a big deal because not only does it involve singing, but it also is the first time that many Afghans have been exposed to democracy and been able to take advantage of it. The voting for Afghan Star is all done through SMS messages that the people send from their mobile phones which is also cool because I had never realized or thought about the idea that everyone in Afghanistan would have a cell phone. I thought it was crazy how when one of the competitors, Setara, danced on national TV everyone freaked out, and men were calling her "loose" and saying that she should die. Clearly the society is still very conservative and rigid when it comes to this, and while they may accept and enjoy singing, dancing is something that the Afghan people are definitely not ready for. Overall, I would give this film four out of five stars.

SnoopyStyle It's late 2007 and season 3 of Afghan Star, a singing contest on Afghanistan television. It attracts thousands of hopefuls and even three female singers. It would eventually be watched by as many as eleven million viewers.It starts a little slow. It feels scattered as the movie figures out who the most interesting contestants are. The production is reasonable considering the jerry-rigged nature of Afghan Star. The most compelling story is Setara when she starts dancing after getting voted out. It is the most compelling moment in the movie. The shock of everybody around her is the jolt that elevates this movie. This is a great slice of life documentary.

Allis Mild (MyFilmHabit) Now, here's a sentiment I can relate to: peoples' universal love of singing! It doesn't matter where you're from, or which religion you follow. There's something about really belting it out into a karaoke machine that's just irresistible. People makes careers studying the psychological components and the deeper meaning of Human Nature, but some of it is pretty simple and common. This documentary follows the Afghan Star televised singing competition. The show follows the format of American Idol, but instead of singing cheesy, English pop songs, the contestants here sing traditional Afghan music. Apparently, the songs are more popular and contemporary than classical Afghan music, but they're still in some of the various languages spoken in Afghanistan, and deemed culturally and morally acceptable by Islamic law. That's important for a show that's broadcast throughout the whole nation. This is a particularly touchy subject for the nation, since it's one of the few things about which citizens can vote democratically. Anyone with a cell phone can text in and vote for his or her favorite singer. In a country as ethnically diverse as Afghanistan, citizens wonder whether the voting will really be unbiased, or whether voters will simply choose the contestant from their particular ethnic group. And, In another unsurprising twist, these new voters run right into another one of the most contentious issues in modern democracy: campaign finance. Wealthy Afghanis have figured out that they can purchase thousands of SIM cards, thereby throwing the vote in favor of their particular darling. (I guess there's more than one universal theme in this film.)This documentary is really good. Director, Havana Marking, does a great job introducing us to the various contestants, and she really builds the right amount of suspense as the competition progresses. We get to know the singers a little. We rejoice with them when they advance to another round, and we cry with them when they're eliminated. This show was very interesting, because it was one of the first new programs to pop up once the Taliban's decades long ban on singing and music was finally lifted. The show was particularly controversial because the producers allowed women to compete on television alongside men. The film indicates that this contest falls into a gray area of Islamic law. While there is no ban on women singing, the female contestants would have to be very careful not to draw the wrong kind of attention to themselves by appearing vain or sexy. And, some of these women come dangerously close to the line. It's interesting to see how Afghanistan's culture has started to revive itself after the Taliban lost its hold on Kabul. People are wary, and they are branching out very carefully, but they never really lost their old preferences.

paul2001sw-1 Most of us are familiar with the images of Afghanistan at war, or under the Taliban; but until the rebellion against the Soviet invasion, the country was a relatively modern state, at least in the capital. As the nation attempts to find peace after decades of conflict, 'Afghan Star' follows the screening of a 'Pop Idol' style television program, apparently gripping the nation. The show is hardly racy by Western standards; indeed, with men in dodgy suits and understandably limited production values, the program feels as if it could have been made in the 1970s, before the wars started. But what we see in this film is how strikingly, and tragically, Afghanistan has moved backwards in the intervening years; and how a latent national enthusiasm for having fun is pitched against a deep set religiosity, sometimes within the same individuals. When one of the female contestants takes off her headscarf to sing, one feels a little uneasy; as an outsider, one can only guess at the true nature of the risks she is taking. In my own country, I tend to decry this kind of cheap entertainment, and there's a sense in which the reactionaries have a point when they lament the invasion of foreign culture; but they offer only regression and ignorance as an alternative. Yet when the popular enthusiasm for voting for a favourite star seems in part driven by the sense of futility in voting in elections, one fears that the dark days may not yet be over.