`KANDAHAR' MORE THAN JUST A CITY IN AFGHANISTAN.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

Timing has certainly been beneficial to ``Kandahar,'' the latest release from acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf.

When he was making the film in his country's parched, eastern desert, Makhmalbaf could not have known that, by the time it was released stateside, Americans would actually have heard of its title city (never shown, by the way, both because there was no filming in neighboring Afghanistan and because, well, Iranian films tend to be about never getting to where you're headed).

Similarly, the film's subjects - the devastation and lawlessness more than two decades of war have rendered in Afghanistan, and that country's just-deposed Taliban regime's oppressiveness - have swiftly and unexpectedly become common knowledge here on the other side of the world.

All well and good for ``Kandahar's'' commercial prospects. But the story behind the movie is an equally compelling accident of history. And that's not even considering that one of the featured players is a wanted assassin ... but first, the backstory.

Nelofer Pazira, who ended up starring in the film, left Afghanistan when she was a teen-ager in 1989. Growing up in Canada, she kept in touch with a friend in Kabul. One particularly despondent letter about the Taliban's harsh treatment of women made Pazira fear her friend might take her own life. So Pazira contacted Makhmalbaf, whose film about Afghan refugees, ``The Cyclist,'' led her to believe that maybe he could help her get back into her native country to see her friend.

Makhmalbaf could not do that, but Pazira's plight so impressed him that he wrote a fictional screenplay inspired by it, then called her back to Iran a year later to film it.

This turns out not to have been the greatest idea in the world. Pazira, whose fictionalized heroine Nafas tries to get from the Iranian border to Kandahar to stop a suicidal sister who's lost her legs to a mine, certainly understands the feelings and conflicts of a Westernized Afghan woman confronted with the extreme sexism and poverty of the region. But every time we hear her speak English, it's evident that she's no actor.

Of course, as is typical of Makhmalbaf, most of the other players in ``Kandahar'' are amateurs as well and, at least to anyone unfamiliar with the regional languages, they are mightily convincing indeed. Sometimes tragically so, as the burka-clad Nafas makes her quixotic way across the desert, she encounters underfed orphans, wild-eyed brigands and - in a sequence that manages to mix profound sadness and the bleakest black comedy - a horde of amputees besieging a remote Red Cross station, trying to cajole artificial limbs out of the nurses.

These disabled extras clearly do not enjoy the benefits of Hollywood makeup effects. But they aren't the only heartrending figures in ``Kandahar.'' You'll not soon forget the stricken looks on the faces of refugee schoolgirls who have just been told that, once they're shipped back home, they won't be able to study anymore. And the scene inside an Afghan madrassa, one of the religious schools where young boys are taught the Koran by rote repetition and weapon fetishes for diversion, is as chilling as it is revealing of the mindset we're at war with.

Which brings us back to our friend, the assassin. In a poor, sun-blasted village, Nafas encounters Tabib, an American Muslim providing the closest thing to medical care for miles around. Tabib is well-played by Hassan Tantai, another amateur Makhmalbaf claims to have picked out of a crowd. But a Maryland state's attorney says that Tantai is actually Daoud Salahuddin, born David Belfield, who has been hiding in the Islamic republic since murdering an anti-Khomeini Iranian diplomat in 1980.

Makhmalbaf admits that he doesn't know if Tantai is being rightly or wrongly identified, but that hasn't stopped the director from issuing a rambling, defensive statement about the charge being some kind of Western conspiracy.

All of which adds another complex spin to ``Kandahar's'' unblinking criticism of Muslim extremism. This movie blows away simple notions of good, bad and righteousness like so much dust in a sandstorm.

``KANDAHAR''

(Not rated)

The stars: Nelofer Pazira, Hassan Tantai, Sadou Teymouri.

Behind the scenes: Written, directed and produced by Mohsen Makhmalbaf. Released by Avatar Films.

Running time: One hour, 25 minutes.

Playing: Town Center 5, Encino; Fine Arts, Beverly Hills.

Our rating: Three stars