Venice Documentary ‘Hollywoodgate’ Offers Gripping Portrait of Taliban Rule After Humiliating U.S. Retreat From Afghanistan: ‘What Was the War For?’
variety.comChristopher Vourlias When the last American transport plane left the tarmac at Kabul’s international airport in August 2021, ending a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and marking an unceremonious conclusion to what had been known as the “forever war,” the U.S.
left more than unfulfilled promises and unanswered questions in its wake: Also left behind was more than $7 billion in military equipment, now in the hands of an Islamist government that rose to power not at the ballot box, but at the barrel of a gun.
What would become of all that sophisticated weaponry is a question that hung over the heads of the war-weary Afghan people, who after two decades of American occupation and brutal Taliban insurgency saw their dwindling hopes of democracy fade to black.
It is a question, too, that hangs over “Hollywoodgate,” an arresting, verité portrait of the Taliban’s transition from a fundamentalist militia to a military regime that premieres Out of Competition at the Venice Film Festival before screening at Telluride.
Read more on variety.com