StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Cameron Crawford Afghan Star was a documentary that served the purpose of showing how the Afghan people live and what their culture does to them. The Afghan Star television show is similar to American Idol and other singing competition shows. This movie chooses to follow two women, in particular, Setara and Lema. Setara is the first of the two to get eliminated, and she is allowed a final performance. In this performance, she passionately sings and chooses to dance, which is forbidden in Islamic culture. The dancing in her performance brings her death threats and exclusion from her people. Setara really shows the struggles that many women go through in Afghanistan, and I think that is what this movie is really trying to portray. Gender equality in Afghanistan is one of the lowest in the world, which is definitely shown in this film. After Setara is eliminated, the focus of the documentary shifts to the final three contestants, Hameed, Rafi and Lema. These finalists are all from different tribes, and they all want Afghan unity. Since many Afghans watch this show, a plea for unity may actually be heard.

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.

asc85 I saw this film last night on DVD. I enjoyed it, but I think it will resonate more with me as time goes by and I get to think about it some more. Because it's a documentary, I found it to be a bit dry in terms of the "entertainment" factor. But in terms of the topic and country being covered, this was extremely interesting, and at times, sad to watch. Sad because there are glimpses on what Kabul was once like prior to the Russians invading in terms of more freedoms, and the struggle that women now have in Afghanistan since the Taliban.As someone who also watches American Idol, it was fun to see how the show looks in another country, and it is remarkably similar. The Afghans shown in this movie showed great spirit and resilience, and I wish that country the best moving forward.

clg238 This is not merely about the Afghani version of "American Idol," but the effect it has on an entire country. "Afghan Star," the talent competition on TOLO, a TV station that is monitored and at times pressured by the government, is a raging success with a public that comprises disparate ethnic strains in quite discrete parts of a country that has been repeatedly fractured. Indeed, it is seen by the program's contestants as well as by many of its viewers as a more likely path to political unity than politics itself, which has been undeniably divisive. Think of how TV brought the United States together in times of tragedy. Here is shown the power of TV in a more joyous context. The contestants in this documentary seem to be stand-ins for a political message; with the exception of Setara, a young woman who is willing to challenge the mores of her home district, we don't learn very much about their individual backgrounds. The footage of the country, however, is fascinating, both the recent views as well as those from a few decades ago, when Afghanistan looked more like an American city of the 50s. The film is gripping even as it educates those who may have no familiarity with a Third World tribal culture struggling within to resist or reclaim the push toward modernity.