One of the stars of the highly-rated movie Kandahar has been unmasked as an assassin, according to a county prosector in Maryland, America. Hassan Tantai, who plays a doctor in the esteemed film, is actually 51-year-old killer Daoud Salahuddin, born David Belfield, reports Montgomery County State's Attorney Douglas Gansler. The legal man says Tantai murdered an Iranian dissident in suburban Washington in 1980 and then fled to Iran, as he explains, "We are very confident that they are one in the same. He's a terrorist, he's a fugitive and he's a confessed assassin." The attorney claims that he has "conclusive" information which proves Tantai is actually Salahuddin, but he refuses to comment further because the case is still technically open. Kandahar, directed by Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, has been shown at film festivals worldwide and won two awards at the prestigious Cannes festival. With its suddenly timely theme of the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan, it opened in New York theatres on 14 December and debuted in the rest of America on December 28th. Director Makhmalbaf meanwhile, claims that since he just selects his actors from "crowded streets and barren deserts," he does not know if Salahuddin and Tantai are the same person.
- 1/4/2002
- WENN
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