Reality check for Cannes crowd as film highlights Afghan plight

THE continuing plight of Afghanistan, with its legions of homeless returnees and lingering memories of the Taliban, sent a sudden chill across the Cannes movie extravaganza, after the premiere of a film

By far the youngest of the 20 directors competing for Cannes' coveted Palme d'Or, Makhmalbaf's almost documentary film was shot in the last months of 2002, as a million refugees poured into the devastated land, only to find their homes in ruins and little to eat or drink.

"I wanted to show reality, not the clichés on television saying that the US went to Afghanistan and rescued the people from the Taliban, that the US did a Rambo," she said at a news conference on the film.