"In Afghanistan, this is the problem, because everybody holds a piece of that mirror, and they all look at it and claim that they hold the entire truth"
About this Quote
Makhmalbaf isn’t offering a poetic metaphor so much as an indictment of how Afghanistan gets narrated: as a set of competing certainties masquerading as total reality. The “mirror” is truth itself, but fractured into shards held by warlords, tribes, foreign governments, aid agencies, journalists, and survivors. Each fragment reflects something real, even urgent. The danger is the leap from “my angle is accurate” to “my angle is complete.”
The line carries the director’s sensibility: it’s about framing. In cinema, what you exclude matters as much as what you show; Afghanistan, in global discourse, is routinely reduced to the most legible frame for the speaker’s needs. For Western policymakers, the shard might be counterterrorism. For humanitarian campaigns, it’s suffering that must be made visible to unlock funding. For local power brokers, it’s history and grievance organized into a claim on authority. Each holds a piece and, crucially, performs wholeness because wholeness wins arguments.
The subtext is a warning against moral monopoly. “Problem” here isn’t simply disagreement; it’s epistemic arrogance that turns complexity into a weapon. The mirror image also hints at self-regard: people look at the shard and see their own priorities reflected back, mistaking that reflection for Afghanistan.
In context, Makhmalbaf’s career sits at the crossroads of Iranian cinema, revolution, exile, and a long engagement with Afghanistan’s proximity and pain. He’s pushing back on the comforting story that one side, one ideology, or one intervention can “solve” a country that has been repeatedly simplified into catastrophe and crusade.
The line carries the director’s sensibility: it’s about framing. In cinema, what you exclude matters as much as what you show; Afghanistan, in global discourse, is routinely reduced to the most legible frame for the speaker’s needs. For Western policymakers, the shard might be counterterrorism. For humanitarian campaigns, it’s suffering that must be made visible to unlock funding. For local power brokers, it’s history and grievance organized into a claim on authority. Each holds a piece and, crucially, performs wholeness because wholeness wins arguments.
The subtext is a warning against moral monopoly. “Problem” here isn’t simply disagreement; it’s epistemic arrogance that turns complexity into a weapon. The mirror image also hints at self-regard: people look at the shard and see their own priorities reflected back, mistaking that reflection for Afghanistan.
In context, Makhmalbaf’s career sits at the crossroads of Iranian cinema, revolution, exile, and a long engagement with Afghanistan’s proximity and pain. He’s pushing back on the comforting story that one side, one ideology, or one intervention can “solve” a country that has been repeatedly simplified into catastrophe and crusade.
Quote Details
| Topic | Truth |
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