Every year the Sudanese civil war grinds to a halt as the muddy conditions make it impossible to maneuver tanks. Soldiers go home to their families to help them tend to their farms. Once the war resumes, the soldiers must be rounded up again. Adnan is one of these soldiers and something of a hero among the others. He shot down a drone single-handed with his beloved AK-47. But something has made him decide to flee the army, which is when he runs into the eccentric Absi.
aKasha is a dark comedy and a very funny one at that. Comedy comes from the self-deprecating characters awkwardly navigating their village, trying to achieve simple goals through the most convoluted and impractical of means. There are also some very surreal visual gags, including an inadvertent drug trip. They joke about their experiences of war, and yet the war looms large over proceedings. There’s a persistent sadness to these men. Our hero Adnan is actually riddled with self-doubt and merely acts bravely to compensate for his fear. The two tragic fools have a Shakespearean quality to them.
aKasha is a unique and very entertaining comedy about the effect of warfare on a small village. It’s driven by characters, and has an abundance of charm.