First the play. Now the film. The story of the last two Jews of Afghanistan, drowning in a sea of mutual loathing, continues to mesmerise. The latest to fall for it is Dan Alexe, a Franco-Belgian documentary film-maker. Alexe has just made Cabale a Kaboul. (With thanks: a reader)
Le Monde's famously blunt film critic, Jacques Mandelbaum, is not impressed, however. This film, he says, "feeds on the hatred between two men who accuse each other of selling out to the Taliban. It displays neither curiosity nor understanding for them. If there are only two Jews left in Afghanistan and neither could stand the other, the least the director could do would be to show us the courtesy of explaining how they got to this point: why did they not follow their families into exile; their culture, hopes and fears. Instead the film is content to show us two grotesque puppets engaging in a fierce war, diminishing their characters and exploiting their weakness with spine-chilling disregard for the truth."
Le Monde's verdict: Missable.
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