Afghanistan on screen: 10 films about the conflict

As US forces pull out from the nation’s longest running war, a look at some of the most thought-provoking films dealing with the Afghan conflict.

Unlike Vietnam, when mainstream movies about the war (Platoon, Born on the 4^th of July, Rambo etc) really only caught on around 10 years after the fall of Saigon (April 1975), motion pictures set in Afghanistan were put into production relatively shortly after the struggle began.

Few (with one notable exception) really set the box office alight, the subject probably remaining too raw for audiences to regard as suitable popcorn fare. It’s interesting to note that some of the Afghan wars prior to the ongoing insurgency have also featured in motion pictures.

John Huston’s 1975 adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s novella The Man Who Would Be King was set in the aftermath of one of The British Empire’s frequent interventions (three wars, excluding the current allied effort) in the country.