Film Review: ‘Jirga’

Buried within the closing crawl of writer, director, cinematographer and co-producer Benjamin Gilmour’s unfortunately cryptic but nonetheless fascinating debut film “Jirga” are shout-outs for security, political and cultural liaisons, as well as an Afghan film advisor. These credits speak, however quietly, to the no-doubt-delicate and clearly arduous making of a film that finds a guilt-ridden Australian soldier returning to Afghanistan three years after mistakenly killing a married father during a village raid to make monetary amends to his widow and orphaned sons, only to be waylaid by a small, cave-dwelling Taliban squad along the barren route.

Warmly received on the festival circuit — almost certainly as much for its spectacular scenery as the frustrating wisp of a plot — “Jirga” (which means “a tribal council” in the film’s predominant Pashto language) has emerged as Australia’s official entry for the Oscar foreign language race as well as the winner of the newly-created “best indie film” at the not-for-profit AACTA (Australian Academy) Awards.

Anxious bordering on paranoid, Mike Wheeler (Sam Smith) arrives in Kabul three years after a brief prologue in which he’s seen in uniform during an apparent raid on a village. Acquiring local clothes and an unwanted guitar, he checks in to a small hotel and immediately unwraps and hides five paperbound bundles of American $100 bills hidden around his mid-section.