**Spoiler Warning Ahead**
Opium War came as a complete surprise to me. I was expecting some heartwarming and quirky tale about two American soldiers who come to be accepted by an Afghani family. Boy, was I off. Opium War opens with an Afghani boy peeing on a skeleton, saying “Motherfucker, you said you would keep the evil eye away from us, but we were cursed. The world is full of motherfuckers.” The boy eventually finds a crashed helicopter and two unconscious soldiers, and assumes them to be dead. He helps himself to some trinkets from the chopper. The two soldiers eventually awake, completely addled as they stumble towards the boy’s family dwelling. It turns out the family is living inside a ruined Russian tank set up by a dried up poppy field. And then the film starts to get strange.
Opium War is a black comedy and a deliberate Theater of the Absurd, at times resembling Acid Westerns such as El Topo and The Shootist in its gritty, nonsensical, and nihilistic atmosphere. The soldiers act as children in a weird shoot-‘em-up war, but speak in existentialist, despairing soliloquies. The hopelessness of the Americans ever winning the hearts and minds of the Afghani people is laid bare in the vicious infighting between the clan mothers. My favorite scene involved a group of little boys leading the soldiers through an international graveyard, gleefully pointing out “Here is where a Brit is buried. Here is where a Russian is buried,” with the soldiers not understanding one word of their language. The ending, which involves a helicopter raising the tank and the introduction of ballot boxes, is merely the last ridiculous scene in the series of increasingly ridiculous scenes.
Opium War is a savagely bitter, hilarious, and mind-bending film, and not just because the soldiers are hopped up on opium for most of the film. It’s a film only an Afghani filmmaker could get away with it in its mordant and sarcastic portrayal of the latest foolish Western foray in the Allah-forsaken land of Afghanistan. Director Siddiq Barmack offers no hope in this No Exit vision of Afghanistan, sandblasted and crushed by history. If you’re looking for some charming tale of the meeting of two cultures, Opium War is not for you. But if you’re in a need of a harsh shot of rotgut reality, give this film a shot.
Tags: opium war, opium war afghanistan, siddiq barmack