Stray Dogs

Star Review

In Meshkini's previous film The Day I Became a Woman, she approached the theme of elementary inequality between men and women in three poignant and at times surreal vignettes. In Stray Dogs, set in Afghanistan in 2001, the tone and the symbolism are darker, but she again addresses basic injustices and presents a country in which natural laws seem to have been turned upside-down.
It is also another film from the region that features performances of amazing maturity from its child leads, 5 year-old Gol Ghotai especially. She and her brother must fend for themselves now that their father, a Talib, is in prison. Their mother, who married again after his five year absence so that she could feed her children, is also now in prison for being 'a whore'. After they have been told they can no longer stay with their mother as 'night prisoners', the children try to commit a robbery so they can be arrested and sent to prison too. This a powerful film in which a generation of children are war orphans - even when their parents are still alive.

Graeme Hobbs on 6th November 2006

View all 230 of Graeme Hobbs’s reviews

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Film Description

Meshkini's beautifully crafted and moving insight into post-Taliban Afghanistan follows the fortunes of a young brother and sister and the dishevelled dog they rescue from a Kabul street.

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DVD Extras

• Filmography
• Text interview.

Film Details

Cast

Gol-Ghotai

Technical Details