It takes a special kind of conceit to make a pro-American film about Afghanis. Well, to be fair “special kind of conceit” is our national hallmark, our country’s calling card, if you will. It’s more American than the football you play with helmets and shoulder pads, health insurance issues, or school shootings. People who voted for Trump actually believe we are a respected nation. Some them even believe we are respected because of Trump.
Wow, we’re stupid.
Hence, when America makes a film set in a country we were currently occupying and dealing with the occupied peoples, and fails to mention such while attacking the norms of the people living there? Well, that’s spot on. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
Roya Mahboob (Nikohl Boosheri) is an Afghani computer engineer. This statement is ten-times more impressive when we consider the sexist environment she grew up in. If the film is to be believed, Roya had to physically leave the classroom when computers were brought in. “Boys only.”
That was in 1999. Nearly two decades later and after being named one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential, she has a dream. And that dream is about having an all-girl Afghani team complete in the international robotics competition in 2017.
Well, how hard could it be, really? I mean we’re only dealing with ultra-misogynistic cultural bias and every third-world problem one could ask for, right? The barriers only start with education. Beyond that, there are social, religious, governmental, and familial barriers as well. Oh, and practical ones, too. International robotics is a game for rich countries to play. Afghanistan is rural Mississippi minus the high tech.
Hence, Rule Breakers is set-up like any underdog sports movie except we learn less about the team. The film adequately describes Ms. Mahboob, which is fine except the girls on the team all seem interchangeable. Nothing says “freedom” and “individuality” quite like, “you’re all the same to me.”
Speaking of “all the same to me,” the film rubbed be wrong from the beginning in which it was clear from the outset that most of the dialogue would be English as if the players themselves spoke it fluently. Oh, so, great! You’re all just like Americans, 
right? Except, of course, that you can’t be, because the guy in charge and the people who voted for him think of Afghanistan as a “shithole country,” and they’d sooner employ deathcamps than expand immigration to Middle East randos.
And yet, the air of “isn’t the United States a great place?” persists. This feeling is especially appalling given that over 90% of film took place during a time when the United States Army occupied Afghanistan. In fact, dialogue in the film enumerates the many invaders the Afghan people have turned aside over the centuries, and yet THEY MANAGED TO FORGET THE CURRENT ONE!
A film like this essentially adds up to culture shaming, which is pretty rich coming from a culture currently sliding into fascism, especially when espoused by the folks enabling that fascism. “Shame, shame on you, Afghanistan, for being sexist and repressive” is an acceptable message, perhaps, from Finland or Denmark, but from Angel Studios? You mean the place where art is deliberately filtered for language, sex, and violence? You mean, by the United States, where two of our last three elections have seen a male buffoon defeat a woman who is his better in every single way that matters? I could almost take that message coming from, I dunno, Paramount or New Line, but from Angel Studios? You assholes are part of the reason Trump won. Don’t pretend you get a pass now.
I know you meant to make an uplifting story about women overcoming odds, but to me this much more resembles propaganda from a country that doesn’t currently have a leg to stand on. If left unchecked, the American Taliban (yeah, you, ultra Christians, evangelists, and Angel Studio reps) will happily re-make the United States to reflect exactly the Afghanistan shown in this film.
There was once a sharp woman, Mahboob
In ’99, she was just another noob
But she learned computing
Now there’s no disputing
She’s more than your standard Afghan rube
Rated PG, 120 Minutes
Director: Bill Guttentag
Writer: Jason Brown, Bill Guttentag, Elaha Mahboob (hey, that’s the same last name as the heroine; what were the odds?!)
Genre: Movies that aren’t nearly as well-meaning as they present
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Self-congratulatory Angel Studios executives
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: “Seriously. You’re not even going to mention the part where the US has invaded Afghanistan … in a movie about Afghanistan during the period of US occupation?”
