At five in the Afternoon

At Five in the Afternoon
Directed by Samira Makhmalbaf

At five in the Afternoon
And the bull alone with a
High heart!
At five in the afternoon.
When the sweat of the snow
Was coming
At five in the afternoon
When the bull ring was
Covered in iodine
At five in the afternoon.
At five in the afternoon.
Exactly at five o clock in
The afternoon.
--- from Cogida and Death, by Federico Garcia Lorca
These were the exact words which appear as subtitles, while on the screen we see fast stretches of dull yellow sand and a blue burkha slowly appearing from nowhere. At the background of course Lorca’s poem being recited in a hushed whispering tone. This sets the morbid, hopeless tone of the movie. The sorrowful Lorca poem is about a bullfight and signifies gradual physical and moral degeneration. Throughout the movie that is exactly what Samira wanted to portray about the lives in post war Afghanistan, even without the Taliban regime.
Slowly the blue burkha takes the shape of a girl trudging her way amidst the sands balancing heavy pictures of water on her shoulders. It is evident that Nogreh had travelled miles to fetch these two pails of water. Just through the opening scene, Samira sets the morbid mood of the movie. The girls face bears no expression, as if such hardships are a part of her daily routine. Nogreh the protagonist, a 21 year young Afghan girl is one of the many girls struggling for survival in Afghanistan post Taliban regime.
Nogreh has learnt to take struggle in her stride. Nogreh’s father is a follower of stringent Islamic rule, who finds viewing women’s face would send him to hell. He makes a living driving a horse cart. He is against Nogreh’s wish to study in a school. However Nogreh is ambitious. She slips out of the seminary her father believes her to be attending to a school. The little distance from the seminary by-lanes to the school, Nogreh puts on high heels (banned in the Taliban regime) and clatters along the way to attend her class. In the school, Nogreh dreams of becoming the president of Afghanistan. School as in other movies by Samira viz. Blackboard or Apple is a democratic place. Girls are here allowed to speak their own mind. Therefore, on an impromptu speech when asked why Nogreh wants to become the president, she delves into her limited knowledge and gathers enough substance from her surroundings, to express her desire to improve the conditions of the women in Afghanistan. She says that at least she would make sure that there are schools for girls to study, and a 21 year old never needs to attend class with a 12 year old girl. Even the other girls in her school are equally courageous in openly discussing their views. 12 year old Mina who had lost her parents in the Taliban oppression, wants to become a president to make sure that no such atrocity ever occur to children.
However Nogreh’s life is full of struggles. Nogreh, her sister-in-law, her sick infant and Nogreh’s father are frantically in search of a place to stay. The bombed ghostly buildings, the broken aircraft hatchets, everywhere they find an abode, they are displaced by a larger crowd of migrant refugees from Pakistan and other places. Nogreh’s brother a truck driver is missing. The never-ending trail of refugees crowding the left-over buildings and shafts, makes water and food scarce. Amidst all these Nogreh still dreams of becoming the president. Slowly coming out of the cluster of bans and prohibitions Nogreh befriends a refugee young boy, who encourages her to pursue her dreams. For her school elections, Nogreh gets her photographs and practices her speech, on her white high-heels. Nogreh gets eager to know about the women politicians of her neighbouring countries. She wants to know about Benazir Bhutto from the refugees arriving from Pakistan. Even the French soldier of the retreating troupe seems to be oblivious of the political happenings around, which baffles Nogreh. She never expected the foreign militia, the apparent peace-keepers of her country to live in such abject political ignorance.
However it seems there is no hope for her. Inspite of her courage of defying norms, her destiny slowly pushes her towards hopelessness. Once again displaced from their make-shift abode, Nogreh with her family travels the cold, rugged, barren mountainous terrains of Afghanistan. Nogreh and her likes despite their sheer optimism still cannot defy the ill-fate of her country. To save her nephew from cold, her father burns down his horse carriage-a ghastly wooden skeleton. However the child dies. A sense of despair settles upon them. It seems that hope is like a mirage in this land torn with years of war and oppression.
The poem is recited slowly with deep struggled breaths as if to pronounce the slow decay that has set upon the country. A girl’s dream about a career is a complete absurd thought, where living through another day is the biggest struggle.
The movie has stunning visuals with blue veiled girls with blue parasols amidst the vast yellow stretches of sand. It seemed that after years of lives within the closed corridors, the women of Afghanistan are finally out in search of hope, if not life, but tragically this weary country is too feeble to offer even that.
Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s Kandahar had shown Afghanistan under the Taliban regime and the desperate attempts of the girl to hold close the strains of hope from disappearing to survive. Post Taliban, we find, in the same land, a girl relinquishing her hopes again to survive.