We see her one time in the field, in an apparent photo op that has her handing out food to an impoverished citizen. Any indication of Ghafari’s actual political accomplishments is scarce. Ghafari is frequently shown in important meetings among her peers, but the filmmakers only focus on the optics of Ghafari, a lone woman in a sea of men, rather than zero in on what’s being discussed. So, too, do other talking-head interviews. Early on, Ayazi and Mettelsiefen interview a Ghafari constituent who tosses off sexist platitudes and then disappears. Other moments may not feel awkward not in intent, but do in execution. At best, it illuminates how tenuous relationships can get in scary moments at worst, it implies that Ghafari may have “driven” a friend to join the Taliban. Instead, it’s reduced to a gossipy he said/she said situation. It could - we’ll say it, it should - have offered a chance to explore the emotional lives of Afghanistan’s men, how Ghafari handles herself within her chosen profession, and how unlikely allies are made in a fraught times. Some of the documentary’s most difficult moments are handled in similarly baffling and insulting ways, particularly a third-act reveal that sees one of Ghafari’s closet confidants potentially taking a different side. It’s difficult to determine what’s more insulting about spending so much time with the Taliban: Is it that they make zero sense in the context of the film, or that they might buff up the group’s political positions? What are Ayazi and Mettelsiefen possibly trying to convey?
AZI GHAFARI QUARANTINO FULL
In a documentary about a woman whose entire existence stands in opposition to the Taliban’s twisted ideals, all we need to know, see, or hear is delivered early on as Ghafari shares some of the (many) death threats she’s received from the group, full stop. We don’t need scenes of the terrorist organization spending time in a school, or running around on their horses, or discussing how they avoid being watched by the government. Ayazi and Mettelsiefen don’t even interview the group’s leaders about how they feel about Ghafari they use their time on the inside rambling about with one key figure. Ghafari’s story is compelling enough - and, again, in a film that lacks even basic information, there’s more than enough time to fill - but Ayazi and Mettelsiefen opt to use their (incredible) access to dabble in hideous bothsidesism, spending precious minutes of “In Her Hands” embedded with the Taliban. Who is Zarifa Ghafari? “In Her Hands” can’t untangle itself long enough to tell us. But as Ayazi and Mettelsiefen tick-tock toward the Taliban takeover, they lose their grip and shunt aside what made the film interesting from the start. It’s her very life, and the lives of those she holds dear, from her boyfriend to her father, her bodyguard to her grandmother. It’s not just Ghafari’s work that’s on the line. ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Review: DiCaprio Gives His Best Performance for Scorsese’s Bitterest Crime Epic Ghafari, a politician, entrepreneur, and outspoken advocate of women’s rights and the need for education, has a target on her back, and as “In Her Hands” zooms backward many months, what’s at stake comes into sharper relief. Opening in August 2021, the film plunges us into the tension and fear of the time, with the United States readying to pull out of the country as the terrorist group who once controlled it inches ever closer to renewed domination. Ostensibly a film about Afghanistan’s youngest - for now, and certainly for the foreseeable future - female mayor, “In Her Hands” follows Zarifa Ghafari during the countdown to, and then just after, the fall of Kabul back into the hands of the Taliban. That’s a damning note for this Hillary and Chelsea Clinton-produced Netflix documentary. Viewers will either do their own research (even a Wikipedia page provides more context) or be so turned off they’ll never seek out more information about a fascinating subject.
How do you ask, require, or demand something of art? And yet that’s what we’re left with after watching Tamana Ayazi and Marcel Mettelsiefen’s “ In Her Hands,” a documentary that seems entirely designed to push its audience to ask, require, even demand that it provide the most basic pieces of information about its subject. Netflix releases the film in select theaters on Wednesday, November 9 and on its streaming platform on Wednesday, November 16.Īsking things of films is a losing proposition. Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.
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