Arms and the Men
Fourth Act Film
MOVIE REVIEW
Hollywoodgate (2024)
After centuries of conflict and decades of occupation by the latest foreign army, a country picks up the pieces. Local politics reforms; young men look for work; a diminished government takes stock of its military equipment to work out which guns function and which might fall apart when anyone pulls the trigger. It also ponders, in this case, what to do with $7 billion-worth of the most advanced efficient killing technology in existence, left behind by the United States. For this is Afghanistan in 2021: the weapons are those given to the Afghan government by the U.S. before the latter withdrew chaotically and the former fell apart; and the people finding the stuff left behind are the Taliban.
Egyptian documentarian Ibrahim Nash'at filmed alongside the Taliban for some of this process. "Hollywoodgate" follows in particular Mawlawi Mansour, soon to become head of the Air Force; and a young man named Mukhtar, a lieutenant working as a driver but looking to make a bigger mark than that. Mr. Nash'at accompanies his Taliban subjects into an abandoned U.S. military base, where a former occupant has painted the two words "Hollywood Gate" over the entrance - a good name for the theme park beyond. Lines of Black Hawk helicopters and other sci-fi machines await new owners, in theory sabotaged by the U.S. before leaving; but restoring them poses no insurmountable problem. More of a hurdle is that the man filming might be murdered on camera by his hosts at any moment. Mr. Nash'at struck a deal whereby he would show the Taliban in a positive light; and any unease caused by abandonment of strict objectivity about that particular group has to be balanced against the mutterings of various Taliban soldiers minded to shoot that Egyptian spy with the camera stood over there if he puts a foot wrong, or even if he doesn't.
By the end, the helicopters are fixed and the armored cars rebuilt; and a victory day parade takes place. Air Force supremo Mr. Mansour choreographs the military display from the stands, looking reasonably confident that his people have put the fuses back in the Black Hawks the correct way around. Representatives from the governments of Russia, Iran and Pakistan observe, lurking in black suits and dark ties and sharp sunglasses; the visual language of geopolitical turmoil from such texts as "Rocky IV." By then, partly due to the tension behind the camera, "Hollywoodgate" is sending mixed signals. A music score of suspiciously doomy chords signals menace and threat, to Mr. Nash'at and to Hollywood and beyond, while the Taliban themselves assume the exact same militaristic postures as their former American occupiers, joining a long lineage of groups in doing just that. Everyone just wants a Black Hawk to call their own. This cycle begins again while you watch the film, and rolls on later when you discover that the Taliban has since banned women from singing, giving its Black Hawks something to aim at.
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