A Kandahar Away

In 1991, a refugee arrived in Canada with his wife and five children, fleeing Kandahar, Afghanistan. Decades later, when he discovers the dwindling hamlet of Kandahar, Saskatchewan, he feels an immediate kinship that begs to be explored. Abdul Bari Jamal's impulsive purchase of eight vacant lots in the heart of the Canadian Prairies becomes an unexpected inheritance for his grown children. When the extended family of self-declared urbanites makes their first trip to witness the property, Jamal's daughter seizes the opportunity to document this unusual family vacation, hoping to unravel her father's connection to his homeland and to Canadian patriotism. What unfolds on their journey is far more than a humorous rural-charm clash of cultures—it's a heartfelt, moving conversation about two nations bound by conflict and how much of our identity is tied to the land we occupy.