Kabul Transit

Based on portraits of people from all social strata, the filmmakers present an image of the rapidly changing city of Kabul, which is poised between hope and fear. A money changer totes around stacks of banknotes and tells about counterfeiters and exchange rates, but also about the time that the Americans bombarded a Taliban base near his house. A Canadian soldier helps the Afghan population any way he can with the construction of a school or sewer, and talks about his motivations and doubts. On campus, female students discuss the policies of the Karzai government and the presence of NATO troops. They are sceptical about the improvements of the position of women. A guided tour of a NATO base creates the impression that soldiers are mainly occupied with buying souvenirs and playing games. Meanwhile, police stations downtown have to do without power during the day. The Minister of the Interior gets a visit from a salesman of state-of-the-art fire extinguishing materials that he will never be able to afford. In the midst of the devastation brought by years of war and the painstaking reconstruction, anthropologist David Edwards and co-director Gregory Whitmore also filmed hopeful scenes: an herb doctor with a sense of humour, a very convincing amulet maker and people joyfully flying kites.