HBO Film 'Fixer' Echoes Crumbling Afghanistan

Taliban beheads journalists' fixer as they gain credibility among poor.

ByABC News
August 16, 2009, 10:13 AM

Aug. 17, 2009— -- As a Taliban suicide blast outside NATO headquarters this week spread panic over Afghanistan's approaching presidential election, a new documentary highlights this chaotic and fragile democracy.

"Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi," which airs tonight at 9 p.m. on HBO, explores the corrupt world of post-9/11 Afghanistan, where the lure of the Taliban's puritanical and swift justice continues to woo the loyalties of the poor.

The story of the escalating crisis in Afghanistan is told through Ajmal Naqshbandi and his close relationship with American reporter Christian Parenti of The Nation, whom he serves as a translator.

Naqshbandi describes his dangerous work as a "fixer" -- the journalist's lifeline -- as "bringing one enemy to meet another."

Fixers are highly paid to use their local skills to arrange for transportation and interviews and to bridge the cultural divide in a foreign land.

What begins as an intimate portrait of two colleagues gathering news turns tragic when Taliban fighters kidnap Naqshbandi and an Italian journalist during a dangerous trip to interview a high-level commander.

Reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo is set free in exchange for five Taliban prisoners, but the attempt to save Naqshbandi is bungled and the fixer is forgotten, brutally beheaded by his captors.

The event and the film raise the question, "Is the life of a foreigner worth more than the life of an Afghan?"

Directed and filmed by Ian Olds, the movie was originally intended to chronicle the rapport between journalist and fixer in a war zone. But double tragedy struck.

In 2006, Olds had just finished making "Occupation Dreamland," with film maker friend Garrett Scott. The film, about the Army's 82nd Airborne during the build-up of troops in Iraq, was short-listed for an Academy Award for best documentary.

But just before they were to embark on a second film, Scott drowned after suffering a heart attack at the age of 37 in the swimming pool at his California pool.

Just two days after Scott's death, the film makers were honored with an Independent Spirit Award.