Three Songs for Benazir is an Afghan-American short documentary film about a very young couple, Shaista and Benazir, who are newly married and soon expecting a child. They all live in a camp for war-torn displaced people in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul. Shaista dreams of making his family proud by joining the Afghan army and becoming the first in his family to do so. But the elders are scared of Taliban threats and the news of his recruitment will break the hell on them.

I think a much-needed push and gentle storytelling about Afghan’s portrayal of their miseries and jeopardies. Usually, the filmmakers focus on the gallantry of their warriors and rage of the Pashtun warfares that always makes one imagine if the country offers anything else in their thousand years of history than wars and warfares. Do they live a normal life? Yes, they do. And their wars do have consequences. There do are Afghans who become the victims of this political mess.

Shaista’s love for Benazir is out of this world. He sings for her, he passes some pieces of information about technology. But this is the phase where people like Shaista with ambition and admonition of his life decisions are reluctant and despondent. When national and domestic commitments or responsibilities surface together, quick decisions become overhanging with weight. The film being 21-minute short is the reason that the character of Shaista lacks that development and runs swiftly towards the conclusion.

But the productional aesthetics of an Afghan subject in a short format are quite some standard. The camera work over domestic activities is captured well.

Spoken in Pashto and Dari, Three Songs for Benazir is a documentary about family values blended with ambitional sense of honor. The documentary has met its critical acclaim enough to reach the Oscars. The documentary gives its audience a chance to look at conflict-ridden Afghanistan from the other angle.

Ratings: 7/10