Clown in' Kabul

Ashen are the colours in barren, poor Afghanistan, making the colourful balloons attached to the windows of the white van are all the more striking. The balloons convey the glad tidings of cheerfulness and peace to the war-ravaged country. This is the mission of the 21-strong, international group of clown-doctors who made a five-week journey across Afghanistan early 2002. The clowns – from Australia, the US, the Netherlands, Japan and Italy – called on various hospitals as well as schools, refugee camps and orphanages. The group was headed by American doctor Hunter “Patch” Adams, the inventor of ‘red-nose diplomacy’. The documentary CLOWN IN’ KABUL follows the clowns on their tour and shows what their pranks and wisecracks elicit from sick children, from healthy children and from adults. The camera registers the contrast between ill and healthy, between clown and Afghan with a great sense of drama. The plainly shocking images of an inconsolable burnt girl haunt the mind longer than the chuckle of the (healthy) adults who had time for the street theatre. The same applies to the shot little face of a baby, on which a smile does not appear no matter how hard the clowns’ tried. Fortunately, the father manages to do so.