Hyena Road: Shadows of Kandahar (2025)
Genre: War / Drama / Action
Runtime: 1h 58min
Director: Paul Gross
Starring: Rossif Sutherland, Paul Gross, Ali Kazmi
Ten years after the events of the original Hyena Road, Afghanistan is a fractured land caught between broken promises and rising insurgencies. Canadian forces are no longer on the front lines—but when an old enemy re-emerges and a humanitarian mission vanishes near Kandahar, a secret team of veterans must return to the shadows for one last mission down the road they thought they’d left behind.
The film opens with aerial drone footage sweeping across the desolate mountains of Southern Afghanistan. Dust storms rage as convoys roll through villages where peace once seemed possible. In a small town near the edge of Kandahar, a group of humanitarian workers—both Canadian and Afghan—disappear without a trace. The Taliban denies involvement. Local warlords stay silent. Tensions flare.
Back in Canada, Ryan Sanders (Rossif Sutherland), now retired and living a quiet life with a prosthetic leg and recurring nightmares, is called into a debriefing at the Department of National Defence. His old commanding officer, Pete Mitchell (Paul Gross), now working in intelligence, reveals classified footage: a familiar face has been spotted among insurgent ranks—The Ghost, a former Taliban commander believed to have died in an airstrike seven years ago.
This man once orchestrated attacks along the infamous Hyena Road—and now, he may be building a new power base in the very region Canadian forces once tried to stabilize.
The government denies authorization for military involvement. But Mitchell has a personal stake: his niece is one of the missing aid workers. He proposes an off-the-books mission—just six men, no flags, no backup, no official presence. Ryan is reluctant. He lost men on that road. He lost himself.
But when he hears the name "The Ghost," he knows he can’t stay behind.
Ryan assembles a team of trusted veterans—former snipers, interpreters, and a grizzled explosives expert named Dev Singh, a man who once claimed he buried part of himself in the desert. They land covertly at Bagram, then disappear into the black routes south.
Their objective is clear: track The Ghost, find the aid workers, and extract them without igniting a regional war.
As they move along the ruins of the original Hyena Road, memories begin to surface. Abandoned FOBs, broken walls still scarred by bullet holes, graves marked by makeshift crosses and stones.
The road hasn't changed—but the politics have. The once-allied militias have turned against one another. Locals no longer trust anyone in uniform. Foreign faces bring suspicion, not security.
In a desolate village halfway to Kandahar, they meet Zaman, a local elder who once fought against the Soviets and claims to know where The Ghost is hiding. But that night, the team is ambushed. It’s a trap.
Dev is wounded. One of the team, Corporal Hughes, is captured. The rest escape into the mountains.
Zaman was a pawn. The real mastermind isn’t The Ghost—it’s a former CIA contractor named Brad Connors, who’s running his own operation: arming rival tribes to destabilize the region and profit from the chaos.
The Ghost? He’s real, but he’s tired of war. He’s hiding with his family, trying to keep his people alive in a land forgotten by all.
In a tense stand-off, Ryan finds himself face-to-face with The Ghost—not as enemies, but as survivors. They share no common language, but they understand one another.
War, once again, was never what it seemed.
Realizing they’ve been used as pawns in a deeper geopolitical game, Ryan’s team must choose: leave and save themselves, or fight to save the innocents still trapped.
They go in.
What follows is the film’s most harrowing sequence: a silent night raid on an insurgent-run fortress, using only infrared and shadows. The team rescues the aid workers, retrieves Hughes, and exposes Connors' black-market weapon ring by broadcasting the intel through local Afghan networks.
As the team prepares for exfil, they take one last look at the road—the cursed ribbon of dust that brought them all here. Some scars never fade.
Ryan limps onto the chopper. The dust kicks up.
He looks back.
The Ghost watches from a ridge above, holding his son’s hand.
Months later, a Canadian Senate committee quietly receives a package of evidence. No statement is made. No medals are awarded.
Ryan returns home, planting a tree in his backyard. It’s a sapling, barely alive. But it’s growing.
In voice-over, he says:
"They told us war ends when the fighting stops. But out there, nothing ends—just changes shape.
I don’t know if we made peace. But we gave someone a chance to live.
And maybe… that’s enough."
“The war was over. Until it wasn’t.”
