Entertainment

AFGHANISTAN’S IDOL WORSHIP

THE people of Afghani stan have survived 30 years of war and Taliban atrocities. And what is their reward? “American Idol”!

Well, not the show that people in the US are hooked on, but its Afghani clone, “Afghan Star,” which is watched weekly by upward of a million folks, or a third of the nation’s population.

The show works pretty much the same as “Idol” does, with Afghans voting by cellphone for their favorite performers. But this is Afghanistan, where the Taliban still has power, not America.

In “Afghan Star,” British filmmaker Havana Marking’s entertaining first feature documentary, she examines the phenomena and tracks four finalists — two of them women — as they campaign for votes the way a politician does.

There was a time when people in Afghanistan would be killed for having fun, but life is more liberal now.

That didn’t stop one of the female finalists, 22-year-old Setara, from getting into trouble because not only did she sing on TV, but she actually dared to dance and show her long hair — still big no-nos in that part of the world.

She received death threats and went into hiding. The scary part is that her critics weren’t just fundamentalist geezers with long beards; ordinary young men and women also thought she had sinned.

In Pashtu, Dari and English, with English subtitles. Running time: 87 minutes. Not rated (mature themes). At Cinema Village, 12th Street, east of Fifth Avenue.