British Film Set In Taliban Afghanistan Set To Hit Cinemas

Kandahar Break, the first British film to be set in Afghanistan under Taliban rule is due to hit British cinemas this September.

The film centres on two British land-mine clearing experts, Richard Lee (Shaun Dooley, last seen in the gripping TV series Red Riding) and Steve Delamore (Dean Andrews, famous for playing DS Ray Carling in Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes), working in the deserts around Kandahar in 1999.

As there are estimated to be 640,000 mines scattered across the country, the boys really have their work cut out for them. But Afghanistan under the Taliban was a country ruled by a brutal regime that thought nothing of executing women in Kabul's crowded football stadium, so things could get a lot worse.

Despite working for the local Taliban authorities, Richard manages to anger the local police chief (Rasheed Naz, a huge star in Pakistan and a regular on TV and film there for the last forty years) who wants him dead.

Now he must escape the country, by picking his way through mine fields, over parched desert and treacherous mountains, to reach safety in Pakistan - all the while being hunted by vengeful Taliban.

Luckily, he runs into some anti-Taliban guerrillas, led by Omar (Hameed Sheikh, another big Pakistani star) who help him evade capture and join him on his epic trek to the border.

The film is the directed by David Whitney, a promising young British director who's previously made a host of highly acclaimed short films.

Three quarters of the filming was made on HD cameras in Afghanistan itself, but when gunmen opened fire on a van and wounded four crew members, the dangers of working in a country still riven by conflict made themselves horribly clear.

Life had started to mimic art and the entire production had to be airlifted to Pakistan. The last few segments of the film were finished in Tunisia six months later.

Kandahar Break is already getting a positive critical response and has won awards for Best Feature Film and Best Actor for Shaun Dooley at The Newport International Film Festival 2009, and Best Film at the 2010 Philadelphia Independent Film Festival in the USA.

The film is out in selected cinemas September 10th and available to own on DVD/Blu-Ray from September 13 (it will also be available via digital download from iTunes, Love Film, Playstation and Sky VOD).

Watch the trailer for Kandahar Break. What do you think? Exciting? Do we have a new British talent on our hands?

by: Jon Barrett

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