SpIFF 2010: The ‘Star’ is rising

I’ve been going to movies at the 2010 Spokane International Film Festival since Thursday and I’ve yet to see a loser. Part of that isn’t surprising, considering I was among those who chose the lineup.

But I didn’t see every film. And yet even the ones that I didn’t preview - among those the opener, “Soundtrack for a Revolution,” the documentary “The Horse Boy,” the Chinese narrative film “Cow,” the Israeli film “Ajami” and the documentary I saw tonight at the Magic Lantern, “Afghan Star” - would have deserved to be in the lineup of any of the festival’s 12-year history.

“Afghan Star” is particularly worthwhile, and not just because it’s a look at Afghanistan’s equivalent of “American Idol” or England’s “Britain’s Got Talent.” It’s because the backdrop of the show is a country in which just competing in such a contest can mean a death sentence. It’s because amid the poverty, the stark mountains, the dust and cold and the ubiquitous military vehicle passing by (or overhead), the movie presents this reality-based competition as if it’s the most popular thing on Afghani TV.

Which, of course, it is. Far more than politics and maybe even religion, a possibility that upsets the powers that be so much that they threaten to shut the show down. Others, meanwhile, send death threats to some of the female competitors. One, in fact, earns nationwide condemnation just for dancing while singing and uncovering her hair.

The winner of the competition is never really in doubt (it goes to the pretty boy). But the filmmakers do a good job of keeping the story on track through to the competition’s finale. And there’s even a bit of an epilogue for each of the four main finalists.

What you may take away from “Afghan Star” depends on what most interests you. Political oppression? Afghani music? Pretty boys? What I took away were the images: the faces of snot-nosed little boys, burqa-wearing women carrying cell phones, trash-filled streets set in the shadow of haunted mountains, and Afghan TV producers who brave death to bring their viewers … “American Idol”?

Never thought of crap TV as a political statement. But there you have it.

Just as I thought. Simon Cowell is a wuss.

Below : The pretty-boy winner of “Afghan Star.”