Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi
Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi
| 12 March 2010 (USA)
Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi Trailers

In 2007, the Taliban kidnapped 24-year-old Ajmal Naqshbandi and an Italian journalist. Naqshbandi was one of Afghanistan's best "fixers" -- someone hired by foreign journalists to facilitate, translate, and gain access for their stories.

Reviews
Kailansorac

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

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Orla Zuniga

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

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Jakoba

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

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Isbel

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

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John Seal

Ajmal Naqshbandi made his living dangerously: he helped western journalists establish contact with Taliban insiders, enabling intrepid scribes to get the scoop on more risk-averse corporate writers. One of his employers was Nation writer Christian Parenti, who traveled to Afghanistan in 2007 to try and gain access to euphonious Taliban bigwig Mullah Dadullah. Instead, Parenti got a story he'd rather have done without: Islamic fundamentalists kidnapped and murdered Naqshbandi, whose tragic fate is related in this grueling doc from filmmaker Ian Olds (Occupation Dreamland). An award-winner at 2009's Tribeca Film Festival, Fixer is not for the faint of heart, and features some extremely unpleasant edited excerpts from the Taliban's own (non-award winning) videos. Vividly comparing the value placed on the lives of westerners with the lives of Afghan citizens by the puppet government of Hamid Karzai, this is one of the saddest and bleakest films you'll ever see.

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