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Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016) is a war-comedy starring Tina Fey as Kim Baker, an American broadcast journalist who decides to take an assignment in war-torn Afghanistan in an attempt to escape her unsatisfying American life and mundane desk job. The film is based on the true stories of Kim Barker as described in her 2011 memoir, The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan. While the film takes some creative liberties for the sake of narrative such as the type of reporter she is, consolidating the events in Afghanistan and combining several characters, there are also aspects of story that stay true to Barker’s own account of her life overseas from 2003-2009.

A major change to the film is that Tina Fey’s character, Kim Baker, is a broadcast journalist, when in reality Barker is a print journalist. In the film’s production notes, Fey says, “This is a movie based on her life, so we changed her name from Barker to Baker, and Robert also made her a cable news producer rather than a print journalist — who wants to watch people typing?” The movie also amalgamated Barker’s friends, colleagues and story subjects in a way to make the narrative more cinematic and fit within the 1 hour and 40 minute running time. While the filmmakers felt that a broadcast journalist would add more narrative interest, they also decided to focus solely on Barker’s experiences in Afghanistan due to time constraints. Robert Carlock, who wrote Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, commented on the change in the production notes saying, “Pakistan is a big onion. You can peel it forever; it is endlessly complicated. And we felt that having the film constantly shuffling between Islamabad and Kabul would be too disorienting.” As a result, the film’s focus on a single location in Barker’s experiences allowed for more time on developing Fey’s character.

While the circumstances surrounding the film’s backstory were changed, many of the absurd experiences that Fey portrays are true to Barker’s account. A prime example is the portrayal of the 4-10-4 rule that is present in the film. Barker discusses the phenomenon in male dominated areas, especially those where many women wear hijabs and other coverings, where a woman who is a “4” in the United States becomes a “10” in Afghanistan due to the lack of available women, but later becomes a “4” again when she return’s home. Fey comments on the absurdity her character faces, “Kim has to come to terms with the fact that she’s suddenly a 10 in Kabul. She’s what they call ‘Kabul Cute.’ At first the overwhelming attention is a shock, but she comes to enjoy it. And rather than finding herself in competition with the other women, they become a unit.”

Another true aspect of the film that the actors felt strongly about was the representation of Fahim Ahmadzai, a “local fixer” who helps journalists arrange important stories and interviews. Barker has stated that Ahmadzai was indespensible to her career as he provided her with help that led to her cracking her first major stories. Fey was particularly affected by his character, stating in the film’s production notes, “Fahim is based on a real man who worked with Kim for years and they became very close; he’s her work-husband. There is a real affection and deep friendship.” She continues, “but there’s a certain painfulness too because, due to cultural conventions, they cannot be demonstrative with one another, even after knowing each other for years.”

However, while Barker had formed some positive relationships with certain men during her time in Afghanistan, Barker also had some deeply uncomfortable encounters. Namely, Barker’s relationship with Ali Massoud Sadiq (played by Alfred Molina), who appears to be playing a character loosely based on Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, seems comically outrageous. In the film, during their first meeting in his office, Sadiq will not even address Baker who is trying to interview him. Perhaps due to the 4-10-4 rule or Fey’s American sass, Sadiq takes a shine to Baker. In order to “get to know her better,” he invites her to his home for some light target shooting with AK-47s. Fey’s character becomes a regular visitor to his office where he makes sure she knows he has a bed installed should there be a need for one. This, while seemingly absurd, is evidently based on Kim’s real experiences.

The film tends to focus more heavily on the indulgence, recklessness and hard partying of the expact community instead of the social and political dynamics of the country, which are mainly expressed as through interactions, such as the interaction with her boss. Similarly, the memoir does not address many of details related to those dyanimcs or the Taliban presence during Barker’s time in Afghanistan. Instead, the memior—and by necessity the film, focus of the humorous ancedotes that arise from the expat community. While the memoir and film both avoid these topics, the humor of the film is still based upon the situations that result from the social and political dynamics.

To explore more, here is a brief featurette provided by Paramount Pictures exploring “The Real Kim (Barker).”