Weekend Movie Forecast: The Hurt Locker Vs. Transformers

Havana Marking’s documentary Afghan Star concerns the controversial final episodes of one recent season on the insanely popular Afghanistan TV show of the same name, which brings American Idol-type competition to a country where, under the Taliban, it was a crime to dance, listen to music, or watch TV. These things are no longer illegal, but female contestants on the show, watched by some 10 million people, still face death threats. The Onion's Noel Murray says "Afghan Star offers a reminder of how much has changed in Afghanistan from the late ’70s—when Kabul was a secular-oriented city with co-ed universities and a thriving nightclub scene—to the rise of the Taliban. Yet even during the country’s most repressive era, people would watch TV or listen to music in secret, and today, some are eager to turn back the clock. Afghan Star features a scene of a young girl using her smuggled Barbie dolls to act out moments from the show, and a later scene of her mother appearing at the series finale with her head uncovered."