Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi

Filmmaker Ian Olds puts a human face on the war in Afghanistan by focusing on a shamefully marginalized native casualty—Ajmal Naqshbandi, a 24-year-old “fixer” (one of numerous go-betweens for the foreign press) who served as a translator-guide through treacherous enemy territory and social strata for correspondents such as Christian Parenti of The Nation. In The Fixer, Olds shows the critical role Naqshbandi played in assisting Parenti, while also providing the former with a platform to share his views on what's happening in his country (he fears Afghans will welcome back the Taliban if nobody else can end the “liberated” country's pandemic corruption). But then in 2007, in what became an international incident, the Taliban seized Naqshbandi, Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo, and their Afghan driver, labeling them as “spies” (the driver was slowly decapitated as a demonstration of Taliban tactics). Italy eventually arranged a prisoner exchange that released Mastrogiacomo—but left Naqshbandi to his doom. In its coverage of the aftermath of the kidnapping, the film incorporates minimally edited atrocity footage from Taliban recruiting videos, interviews with Mastrogiacomo, and comments from Ajmal's family that trace the tragedy back to both Washington's Cold War-era financial and moral support for anti-Soviet Islamic militants and—somewhat less persuasively—to a Pakistani conspiracy. While Olds' time-fractured narrative relies too heavily on flashbacks and some overtly artsy intervals, the timely subject matter makes this recommended, overall. [Note: this is also available for $99.95 w/PPR for public libraries and $295 w/PPR for colleges and universities from The Cinema Guild, www.cinemaguild.com.] Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)