The Last Ambassador (2025) Movie Drinking Game
Take a Drink: for every mention of finances
Take a Drink: for each home video
Take a Drink: whenever the current plight of women in Afghanistan comes up
Take a Drink: “terrorist”
Do a Shot: for death threats
By: Henry J. Fromage (Two Beers) –
The ripple effects of the American pull-out of Afghanistan and the subsequent fall of its government to the Taliban are still just beginning to spread.
The Last Ambassador tells the story of one fascinating one. Manizha Bakhtari is the last female ambassador of the former Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, who despite that country formally ceasing to exist, maintains the consulate in Vienna while trying to do everything she can for her countrymen both there and at home.
A Toast
First and foremost, Bakhtari is a fascinating woman, not just for her present circumstances but for a life full of uncharacteristic intellectual and professional drive in a culture that even in better times was hardly conducive to that for a woman. It’s clear she comes from interesting stock, with a famous poet father, but she’s created her own successful, well-adjusted family, even in such times where she doesn’t often have the time she’d like to devote to them.
And these times and her response to them are far beyond the norm indeed. Until the Taliban government now in charge of Afghanistan is formally recognized by Austria and other European powers, she’s in a kind of limbo created by the power vacuum. Someone needs to continue to support the citizens of her former country abroad, and with no government in absentia formed after the fall, someone needs to advocate for her people who had no desire to suffer the Taliban’s rule, most of all the women of the country who rapidly lose their rights despite all promises to the contrary. Bakhtari is one of the brave few who have stepped up, but for how long?
Beer Two
I would have loved to have hear more particulars on just what consular services a consulate without a country can provide. Do the passports they are making/renewing still receive recognition worldwide? What else can they do without a government backing them? You get hints towards the answers, but surely 5-10 minutes could have been tacked on to explain it further.
Verdict
The Last Ambassador is a portrait of an extraordinary woman in an extraordinary time- keeping the candle aflame for a once and future nation.
