I’m not sure what the message is about for this film. If there is one it isn’t explicit in a way that highlights “this is bad” or “this is good”. That might be the point. The message could be an attempt to start a conversation about surveillance, getting people to think. The man speaking about god adds to this because it offers a point of reference for similarities between the US and a place the US thinks as being so different from it. The young boy enjoying the ferris wheel represents an innocence of every child and makes you wonder why he is being watched. A look into the day to day lives of people working, walking, shopping, and playing is meant to offer insight into the lives of people in Kabul doing the same things people do in the US. This might change perspectives on whether or not Kabul should be watched, it might make you ask why they are being watched, and why it is classified. Are these people in danger of whatever threat the US is trying to protect them from, or does the US think they are the treat? What are we missing?
The story is introduced with just the blimp over the mountains. It is a beautiful sky-scape. Generally blimps are a cool thing to see so without any further insight into, The Above, we are left with lightheartedness and awe of the beauty of wherever the blimp is. When we learn the blimp is over Kabul, we begin to wonder why and all presuppositions of the US and middle east are at stake. As the story progresses, we see the daily activities of a city, while we as the audience are still searching for “why Kabul?”, only to not receive an answer. The balloons carried by the boy also mimic innocence and similarity and act as motive for asking questions because of the unexpectedness of those colors in that landscape. A blimp is shown in Maryland, in a place clearly more affluent than Kabul. Text tells us this is to detect long range missile attacks. The text itself acts as a paradox to the normal lives of people in Kabul, as if they would be the attackers. The introduction of the blimp over a development of houses (a typical perspective from which we have previously seen blimps, which replicates my initial thoughts in the first shot of he film) was perhaps used to change our perspective the next time we see a blimp in the US.
I am left feeling unsure still, feeling uneasy, which could be just what KJ’s intentions were; to evoke in us a sense of uneasiness that the people of Kabul feel.
I also share a similar response in feeling uneasy from the film. But for me, I feel that Kirsten wanted to connect the uneasy feeling with the Army blimp in Kabul to the Maryland area, as a way of saying: “Are we really being monitored for safety or is it for something else?” While there may have been more terrorism incidents in Kabul than in the United States, is flying a surveillance blimp the best way to prevent/monitor these problems in either place? I find the question a pretty interesting one to ask.