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Cabal in Kabul
U.S. PREMIERE
Director: DAN ALEXE
There are only two Jews left in Afghanistan, and they live in the same place: a former synagogue in Kabul. But rather than bonding together, they can’t stand each other.
The elderly Isaac lives on the ground floor and makes a living by selling amulets to his Muslim neighbors. Middle-aged Zebulon lives on the top floor and haggles with the same Afghans over his illegally produced wine. Each fight over their Jewish legitimacy and gleefully tells tales of the other’s deceit and treachery to bemused director Alexe, a Romanian journalist, who acts as double agent, bouncing between the two rivals, collaborating, refusing to judge, and exposing the sadomasochistic relationship that dominates the smallest Jewish community on earth. “A painful and hilarious lesson in cinema about the absurd existence of Jews and Muslims alike.” — Jerusalem Film Festival Catalog
AFGHANISTAN/FRANCE • 2007 • 87 MINUTES • DIRECTOR: DAN ALEXE
Comments
This movie was a huge waste
This movie was a huge waste of my time, but having left after the first 35 minutes I am pleased to be able to spend the next hour NOT in front of that movie. Always trying to find a positive in everything. To summarize those 30-some minutes:
Jew #1 – “I hate him. He hates me. He hates my family”
Jew #2 – “I hate him. Ditto ditto ditto:
Jew #1 – “He is from the Taliban!”
Jew #2 – “He is from the Taliban!”
Jew #1 – “He is from the Taliban!”
Jew #2 – “He is from the Taliban!”
Jew #1 – To shopper: “I dont make amulets on Saturday”
Jew #1 – To shopper: “I dont make amulets on Saturday” (*again* with that joke!)
And how do you bring more humor to the screen? By slicing open the neck of a turkey and letting the blood flow into a pit, and letting us watch it suffer, flapping and squawking, head mostly intact. Let’s toss it into a barrel (was the barrel also heated by firewood?) and hear it smash around the sides. My sides nearly split open, the laughing….oh my god.
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