Original sentence: Afghan Star is a documentary feature film telling the story of the TV series ‘Afghan Star’, a show similar to American Idol or The X Factor, and four contestants on the show.Millions watch and vote for their favorite singers by mobile phone while the film follows the stories of four contestants and the dramas they face and risks they take to become the nation's favorite singer.Page on Sundance Film Festival website
Edited sentence: A Pop Idol–type contest set in Afghanistan.After 30 years of Taliban and wartime rule, pop culture is creeping back into Afghanistan.All is not safe for her subjects because they must actually risk their lives to sing.Director Havana Marking has captured it in this inspired documentary, Afghan Star.For many this represents their first encounter with any kind of democratic process.Havana Marking's Top Ten All Time Films (IONCINEMA.In a larger sense, we get a glimpse into the ongoing struggle of a country trying to segue into the modern world and the dangerous underpinnings its citizens must navigate.In an unheard-of precedent, all genders, ethnic groups, and age sectors are equal.Marking follows the dramatic stories of four of the contestants over three months, from regional auditions to the finals in Kabul.More than one-third of the country watches the show and votes with text messages.Pop Idol.Sundance Site.Though moving and inspiring, what is really brilliant about Afghan Star is that by observing a people's relationship to pop culture, we get a different, if not more human, look at this troubled part of the world.Three of them are women.To understand the magnitude of this film, we must look at the facts—2,000 contestants compete for a chance to be the next Afghan pop idol.What more intriguing inroad into a region usually represented in our news media by death and violence.Zeitgeist Afghan Star Site.com interview with Havana Marking