In a masterful use of the documentary form, and its ability to approach problematic characters with neutrality, the filmmaker maintains a deliberate distance from his subject, freeing himself of any preconceived judgment, and allowing the viewer to form their own understanding of the subject and the social and moral codes that shaped them. With this approach, Afghan-Dutch director Aboozar Amini presents a cinematic portrait of Samim, a 23-year-old Taliban soldier deeply devoted to its ideology and moral values. Amini allows his camera ample time to follow Samim, both in his remote village and through the streets of Kabul, where he and his fellow inspection-unit soldiers are tasked with protecting the city from its enemies.Like other Taliban fighters, he regards “infidels” as enemies who must be fought and for whom one should be willing to sacrifice oneself to defeat them. Samim instills the same beliefs in his younger brothers, ensuring they receive religious instruction from his teenage brother Rafi. He teaches them how to use weapons and how to prepare for martyrdom. The same man is eager to help his father in the fields, and use his breaks to brush up on the English he learned at university. He laments his wife’s abandonment and asks for advice on how to treat her properly.In this different light, Samim appears as an ordinary man shaped by the conservative religious environment in which he was raised. His teenage brother Rafi is much like him, reciting Quranic verses whose meanings he doesn’t understand, playing with other boys, and marveling at the beauty and grandeur of the Buddhist temples the Taliban destroyed.Kabul, Between Prayers does not pass judgment on its subjects. Through the filmmaker’s questions, their inner emptiness is revealed, an emptiness that cannot be filled by the religious appearances they cling to. The film’s prolonged observation invites us to reconsider Samim’s formation and to see him as a man shaped by the social and tribal environment in which he was raised, one that turned him into a rigid believer even as he harbors a deep desire for a normal life, a desire he resists by clinging to what he has become.Kais Kasim