Educational Media Reviews Online

At this critical moment in time, when President Barack Obama is demanding a drawdown of troops in Afghanistan, and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is arguing for 10,000 troops to remain, it’s essential for Americans to learn about the political and socioeconomic history of the country and the ten year war that has cost us upwards of a few trillion dollars. The documentary opens with highlights of Foster’s previous film, the 2007 documentary Afghan Women: A History of Struggle, and then picks up in 2011 to paint a portrait of contemporary Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It isn’t a pretty picture. Despite the claim that we’ve been waging a war against Al Queda, an Afghan emphatically states that Al Queda is no longer in the region. And there hasn’t been much improvement for citizens, despite the enormous cost of human lives and economic investments. Poverty is ubiquitous—most people make less than $40 a month, and “economic segregation” persists. Infrastructure remains weak, and fraud, distrust, looting, and systematic government corruption are chronic problems. Although these problems are enumerated, the through line of the film is the deep desire and commitment of the Afghan and Pakistani people to militate against the socioeconomic issues that limit progress and for the protection of human rights and women’s rights.

A textile workers strike in Faisalabad, Pakistan, in August 2012 alludes to a landmark victory, and a young woman activist who belongs to “Young Afghan Women for Change” talks about ongoing efforts to guarantee girls an education. Foster’s roving and assured camera takes us into the classroom, the marketplace, and the community, and using a mix of news footage, statistics, charts, maps and interviews with scholars, citizens, and American soldiers, she compellingly conveys multiple points of view. A woman who started a sewing collective acknowledges that “small projects will change the lives of people, but big changes are needed.” Foster adeptly shows the small picture as well as the big picture, and one hopes that, in the inimitable words of the African American singer Sam Cooke, “a change is gonna come.”