Love Crimes of Kabul, directed by Tanaz Eshaghian, released in 2011, follows the stories of three women at the Badam Bagh Women's Prison located in Kabul, Afghanistan jailed for "moral crimes." These crimes include running away from home, adultery and premarital sex. We follow these women's journeys from their pretrial prison experience to their sentencing. Through these stories we are given a very small look at the justice system of a country that blends their religious ideals with their moral conduct. The women in this documentary range from late teens to mid-life and their crimes vary from pregnancy from premarital sex to running away from home and seeking refuge in a neighbor's house which could earn them a sentence of 20 years in prison. The function of the documentary is to portray how honor is restored in a society that possesses such strict rules of conduct. Although these inmates are painted as immoral, corrupters of society, there are very few times the viewers feel sympathy toward these women. Western audiences would celebrate these women because it offers a very stereotypical view of Afghani society, but a more informed viewer would question the myopic characterization of these women. The film offers a balanced view of images from both inside the prison and the society outside the prison walls. In prison the women are offered quite a bit of freedom and the prison houses both women and their children, most likely innocent bystanders to their "moral crimes." Love Crimes of Kabul is shot using mostly medium shots of interviews with the inmates and their dialogue with each other. At times the camera is shaky and gives the audience the impression that a small crew filmed these scenes. Although the film focuses more on the crimes of the women, interviews of the male accomplices are also filmed. None of the participants speak English so subtitles are used and at times a translator can be heard. The director was able to capture real emotions evoked during the interviews and dialogues. The filmmakers used very little special effects which contributed to the start representation of live in Afghanistan. The resolution was crisp and pleasing to the viewer's eye which modernized the film and again, contributed to the lack of modernity in Afganistan. When the filmmaker was shooting the trial scenes a low, dutch angle was used to be less intrusive in the scene. I think being a woman, the director was given quite a bit of access in the women's prison, but during the trial of these cases, the film crew was not offered access to these events. During these breaks in footage, the director offered a text track that filled in the gaps of time and story. The film tries to expose a controversial subject, but falls short of evoking support for these women and their situations.
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