12A, 93 mins
Children with more pressing concerns feature in Stray Dogs by the Iranian director Marziyeh Meshkini. Shot in 2003, it portrays a post-Taleban Kabul in which Afghani street children fend for themselves while fighter planes streak the skies. With their remarried mother facing execution for adultery after her MIA Taleban-fighter husband reappears after five years, a brother and sister turn to petty crime in the hope that they’ll be arrested and reunited with her in prison.
Although the film offers telling details — fighting dogs, hundreds of grimy children, a VW Beetle shell as a makeshift home — it keeps resorting to emotionally manipulative and sentimental moments that include the shameless use of a cute dog.
IAN JOHNS