Most people in the area will be aware of Kandahar, SK., located that it is on the Yellowhead Highway on the way to Saskatoon, and points west.
Once famed for its steakhouse little remains of the community, a few residents still holding out, even as the hamlet shrinks.
Of course there is another Kandahar, the one in Afghanistan, one more infamous today as a city in a country where too many Canadian soldiers died in a foreign war.
For one Canadian family the like-named places situated half a world apart would come to have an unusual connection.
That connection of place became the basis for the soon to be launched, (on the documentary Channel Sunday, October 20 at 9p.m. ET), documentary ‘A Kandahar Away’.
“For Abdul Jamal that dot on a map of Canada gave his life new meaning and certainly impacted his family,” details a release on the film. “A Kandahar Away is the story of the Jamal family’s journey from Afghanistan to a tiny Canadian community -- it’s a film about reconciling the past and present, becoming a new Canadian, but most significantly it is about family and one man’s unlikely dream.”
The film is written and directed by Abdul’s daughter Aisha Jamal, her first foray in to filmmaking, she tells Yorkton This Week.
“This is my first feature film. I’ve only made short films before and this is my first full length film,” she said.
“The idea for the film came from my dad, who bought the land over 10 years ago. My brother told me about our unusual inheritance and that sparked the idea of a film about this place called Kandahar, my dad and my family.”
The film owes much to Abdul who left Kandahar, Afghanistan with his young family in 1990 and the discovery of a Saskatchewan ‘Kandahar’ which “sparked a longing for his beloved homeland,” notes the film release.
“It’s a longing he hopes to pass on to the next generation of Jamals, so he decided his five adult children would get their inheritance early: a plot of land for each in Kandahar, Saskatchewan. A tenuous link to his birthplace perhaps but one full of emotional resonance.
“A Kandahar Away charts the Jamal family’s first trip to their new property. It’s a very personal family story told by Abdul’s daughter Aisha.
“His purchase of land in the Canadian Kandahar is his way to let us have a piece of home,” she says, “even if it’s the Canadian Prairie version.”
It was a story Aisha said she felt worth telling.
“I really wanted to explore some interrelated themes through the story of this little place in Saskatchewan and how it intersects with family and our history,” said Jamal who works as Canadian Film Programmer at Hot Docs Canadian Documentary Festival and Associate Programmer at TIFF for Canadian/Nordic/Filipino features.
“I was interested in talking about the place of Afghanistan in Canada (a country that many people know nothing about despite the fact that it’s the longest active combat mission in Canada’s history). I also wanted to talk about the generational differences in immigrant families and also the relationship between the rural and the urban in Canada.”
But, as the release notes, “this is not the inheritance the Jamal children would have chosen. They have grown-up to become Canadians and don’t share their father’s passion for either Kandahar. Owning land in a dying farm town two hours from the nearest airport is not the dream-come-true for these urban new Canadians.”
Then Abdul had another idea that really that stunned his children.
“What better place to build a monument, to the 158 members of the Canadian Forces who gave their lives serving in the Afghan war, than in this newly discovered Kandahar?,” details the release. “It’s a proposal that divides Abdul’s family -- has their father gone just too far this time? But Abdul is adamant and even getting an endorsement from retired General Rick Hillier, who lead the Canadian Forces mission in Afghanistan.”
The film proved an effort to make.
“It took five years to make this film, from conception to completion,” said Aisha Jamal. “It took two years to raise the full funds. I travelled to Kandahar, SK., twice before shooting to meet the locals, think about story and plan elements of the shoot.
“I had to plan out a number of different elements and wrangle eight people which is a lot of film subjects for a documentary shoot. That said, because it’s a documentary there is only so much planning you can do before you have to let go and let it take its own course.”
And there was the deeply personal family aspect of the film as well.
“Making this film was far more difficult than I ever imagined,” said Aisha Jamal in the film release. “It forced me to confront my preconceived ideas about my family, myself and even my country.”
That was one of the most challenging aspects of the project, said Jamal.
“The most challenging aspect has definitely been making myself vulnerable both as a director and as one of the subjects in this film,” she told Yorkton This Week.
“We share a lot of family arguments and discussions. Those were hard to edit. I also had to move between thinking and acting as filmmaker and also family member and film subject.”
The emotion was felt again when the film debuted.
“We premiered the film in front of hundreds of people at Hot Docs and it was hard to sit and watch it all with so many people,” said Jamal. “We put a lot of ourselves on the screen and at times that can feel very exposing.”
Interestingly, the film evolved differently than Jamal had anticipated.
“The film’s story moved in a direction that I didn’t expect,” she said. “That’s the joy of making documentaries as you really hope the story evolves and you are there to capture it.”
When asked what she thought was the best aspect of the film, Jamal noted the sense of place in Saskatchewan.
“I love seeing all the scenery and shots of the Saskatchewan landscape,” she said.
“I took the time to think of how I wanted to shoot the nature of the area and I really enjoy seeing how that aspect came out.
“I also enjoy showing the film and then hearing everyone’s own dad stories. I’ve heard so many wacky and memorable ones.”
While born in Afghanistan, Jamal said the film is mainly for an audience in her new homeland.
“The target audience is mainly Canadian because it’s a very Canadian subject matter but I showed the film in the U.S. recently and it resonated with the audience there as well,” she said. “I guess everyone has a family and the dynamics we explore exist everywhere, if not in most families.”
You can check out more about the film at www.akandaharaway.com
