Anybody ever see Kevin Reynold’s The Beast with Jason Patric, George Dzundza, Stephen Baldwin and Steven Bauer?
Holy war, this was a thriller. A Russian tank fights both the Mujahadin (sp?) and internal morality issues after becoming lost in the desert and surrounded by hostiles.
One of the crew is Muslim and speaks of a certain word that, when uttered to a Muslim, grants one sanctuary as their guest. A crew member utters it to a group of Afghani women bent on retaliation after members of their village are murdered by the tank group and… well… I won’t give it away.
Has anybody else seen this and do they remember the word and it’s exact meaning? Thanks in advance.
This was an excellent movie and very well directed if you’d like to see something on that earlier conflict. Along with Fandango, it was one of Reynold’s best.
I love this movie. The first time I saw it, there were, for whatever reason, no subtitles, which lent a very different feel to the movie (we could understand what the Russians were saying, of course, but had to “figure out” what was going on with the Mujahadeen). It sort of allowed for more sympathy of Patric’s character than when I saw it again with subtitles.
The word is “Nanawatai”. It is the title of William Mastrosimone’s play, he adapted it for the screen. And I’m sorry, but I don’t presently remember its meaning (I just don’t feel like watching my copy right now :D).
Yeah Darwin, the Russians speaking in English and the Afghans in their native tongue presented the viewer with an unusual affiliation with those who were the agressors and seemed to me at least to make the distinction between good and evil even more forced and pronounced.
detop, thanks! That’s it… Nanawatai. I just looked it up and here’s what I found:
In Peshtawali, there’s a thing called Nanawatai. If an
Afghan is asked for Nanawatai, they are obligated to feed, clothe, and shelter that person, NO MATTER WHAT. Even if they are previously obliged to render
“Badal” (revenge) to that person. If an Afghan does not honor this code, they are considered “not a man”. It’s very deeply held - I think mostly among just the
Pashtun tribe.