:: IFFK 2008 ::

Two Legged Horse (Asbe du-pa) begins when a man arrives in a barren, filthy place somewhere in Afghanistan. He is in search of a boy to look after his son who lost both his legs in the war. He offers a dollar a day for the boy who can run like a cart horse carrying his son on his back. Among the hundreds of locals, Giah, mentally challenged but healthy, tall, and comfortable to lean on, is chosen to serve as the horse for the spoiled brat. Starting from the first sequence till the end, Samira Makhmalbaf boldly exposes before us an exaggerated account of dominance and serfdom. The boy washes his master, carries him to school, fights for him and even picks up stones for his master to throw at him.

On rare occasions, Giah resists the subjugation, as when he and his master argue about a beggar girl whom they both have fallen in love with. But he keeps returning to the barbaric castigation he suffers, unable to even think about a world of his own. Every morning, he comes out of his smoldering dwelling, an abandoned sewer pipe, turning more and more into a loyal and obedient horse. He is even rented out by his master, bridled and saddled like a packhorse. On the other hand, some of the most disturbing scenes — when the legless boy is left helplessly hanging in a swing, or crawling after Giah — illustrate the perverse interdependence between the master and his "horse."

Usually it's the tenderness and innocence of children that are highlighted in films on them. But Two Legged Horse reveals the life of two more or less orphaned adolescents, one brutally dominating and exploiting the other — thus becoming a metaphor for the limits of human tolerance, and to what point human beings can be transformed. The juxtaposition of Giah being turned into a horse with shots of a colt and its mother, shows in powerful images the process of this transformation. Still, it must be admitted that the extreme violence of physical and mental torture shown in the film, such as close-ups of Giah's face and feet while horseshoes are being nailed on his feet, reaches a level that is hard for the viewer to endure. Also certain sequences, like the horse race, are superfluously stretched out.

Tolibkhon Shahidi's poignant music gradually raises the level of discomfort within us. The cinematography, capturing superbly the extreme barrenness and poverty of Afghanistan and the stunning performances of the non-professional actors make the film outstanding.

A Makhmalbaf Film House Production, the film raises important questions about the relation between political powers and individuals. The film makes a powerful statement about the way women are treated in Afghanistan. At one point, the master suggests that they simply share the woman they both are in love with. It is the "mentally retarded" Giah who is able to object that "she's not a bread to cut into halves for each of us" — whereas the so-called normal men in this society see nothing wrong with it. Two Legged Horse is an unusual film which drags you into a profoundly disturbing world of trauma.