Afghantsi (1988) watch online HD

Of course this film has a very tragic relevance today but there are enough people using this documentary to essentially push their opinions about the current war in Afghanistan so, whether I agree with them or not, I'd prefer to mainly focus on this documentary for what it is, not what modern wars have made it. The first thing that strikes you about Peter Kosminsky's film is the degree of access and brutal honesty he has managed to get from his subjects. One can only imagine the sheer effort it would have taken to make this happen, not to mention the surprisingly fact that it ever got approved at all. Kosminsky spends time with a couple of soldiers in an outpost on a mountain, some veterans back at home and some family members suffering from the loss of their sons; the interviews and insights are all well pulled together into a film that ultimately laments the failed strategy in Afghanistan and the sheer futility of the entire venture – but does it with minimal narration or tub-thumping.

Made very much in a slightly "old-fashioned" way, the interviews are very static and the narration very crisp and lacking in colour; it dates the film away from our current "graphics for every occasion" news/documentary approach but it is for the better that it is done this way. The Russian subjects also take the emotion and colour out of their contributions because, and I hate to generalise but it does have a bit of truth, they are more serious and straightforward in their speech. Again this helps because you feel you are getting the real picture – not something being talked up for the film. The footage of real life in the outpost and long distance battles are interesting but really it is the contributions that hang in the memory. We hear of torture, we hear of boredom, of the risks and of the sheer pointlessness of what the soldiers feel they are doing. In a moment that will have most liberal-minded people shaking their heads, it is noted that for every skirmish where one enemy is killed, their families and the families of innocents injured or killed in the battle will turn against the Soviet troops – thus increasing the numbers exponentially. It is a depressing comment because, as others have said, this is just where we find ourselves yet again – fancier hardware, same problems.

The footage is well put together, with "real" material mixed with interviews and both complimenting each other. There are some shocking scenes but they are not the entire film, but rather the sense of futility and death comes from even the simplest interviews. That the film is very relevant twenty years later is a depressing fact that helps this film stand up well, but even without it it is a fascinating and depressing documentary looking at war and its effects on people as experienced by young Soviet men in Afghanistan.

The Soviet-Afghan war of the 1980s sits historically between two American wars it somehow resembles; the Vietnam war, whose veterans, having failed to secure a quick and clean victory, were famously unacknowledged at home; and the ongoing wars of in Afghanistan (again) and Iraq, the latest battles between the forces of the enlightenment on one hand and militant Islam on the other. 'Afghansti', made in 1988 (before the collapse of communism), is a sad collection of tales from behind the iron curtain; and while Soviet society may have been loosening during this period, it's still an achievement for Peter Kominsky to have managed to film such damning testimony. But compared to a modern film, one notices the relative absence of real life (i.e. non-interview, non-archive) footage; and the voice-over in very prim BBC English. One senses that to smart young Russians in Moscow today, this film would seem even more astonishing, so much has changed in the last 20 years. But there are still Russian conscripts fighting rebels in central Asia; and for Afghanistan itself, the nightmare continues with little sign of an end after almost 3 decades.

Firstly I must declare interest in this review as I worked on this programme. I should have course given it 10/10 but that would be totally biased! I was interested in the other reviews as I'd watched this again recently. In many respects it does appears dated - shot on film with no fancy graphics - but I think that adds something we don't get these days with modern TV shows - thinking time. By that I mean it's not all wall to wall commentary and continual music. It has the effect of drawing in in the viewer - and that's its strength. The first bit of voice over for example is over two minutes in - you never get that these days. Another reviewer refers to a lack of non archive footage. I don't quite know what they mean as it was all shot by the crew apart from a firefight and a brief shocking scene. Don't also forget this was first screened nearly 25 years ago, so yes it will have dated technically at least. In the interviews you can see the emotions that the people have gone though. There's no dubbed interviews only subtitles which I feel contributes to that drawing in I mentioned before. It would be interesting to see how these vets feel now about Afghanistan and if they ever got the housing they were promised and if our returning service men and women will also feel let down. All in all though I still think it stands up well. The stories are no less harrowing and I believe it was well deserving of the many awards it received.