ON TOUR WITH THE TALIBAN

In On Tour with the Taliban, filmmaker Sean Langan gets up close and personal with senior commanders of the Taliban, who tell him about their strategy for fighting Coalition Forces in southern Afghanistan. He also encounters a child suicide bomber sent over from Pakistan intent on killing Coalition soldiers. On this dangerous journey through the mountainous southern region, Langan also meets fighters who confirm, in an exclusive interview, their direct links to Al Qaeda, as well as the presence in the region of an Al Qaeda commander who plotted to blow up 10 planes over U.S. cities this past summer.

Beginning his journey in Helmand, Afghanistan, Langan meets Mullah Ibrahim Hanifi, the Taliban commander in charge of fighting the British and Afghan army in Garmser, a strategic gateway through which the Taliban are re-supplied with fighters and arms from Pakistan. The mullah details the parallel government set up by the Taliban in the south of Afghanistan; however, the interview is abruptly cut short by the sound of gunfire nearby.

As the filmmaker's journey continues, he travels east up to Kunar, a province on the border with Pakistan. It is here that Langan meets Hizb-I Islami commanders, who are playing a deadly game of cat and mouse with the Americans. They also explain the ease with which they operate out of Pakistan, setting up training camps and bringing over fighters.

Langan also discovers the cost to the Afghan people of the upsurge in violence, with freedoms for women again under threat and new refugees being created.

Nearing the end of his journey, Langan spends time with American forces in the Karangal base, a beleaguered outpost in enemy territory a few miles from where he had just met the Hizb-I Islami. While on patrol with them, Langan comes under attack, and learns the sentiment of the American troops is that they are in the midst of a forgotten war that is under-resourced and unlikely to succeed.