The real Kabul and Kandahar are almost never seen in contemporary movies, particularly those produced in the West. So the sense of going somewhere you’ve never been is palpable from almost the very beginning of “Jirga,” a fictional film shot almost entirely in and around these cities in Afghanistan.

Directed by Benjamin Gilmour and starring Sam Smith — an actor who gives such a distinctive performance that it’s a shame that he has such a common name — the movie is the story of a traumatized Australian soldier returning to the scene of his war crime to attempt amends.

Despite the performance’s credibility, f ew things are more irritating, artistically and historically, than the stranger-in-a-strange-land interloper who hasn’t got a clue what he’s doing. (It’s almost always a he.) Smith’s character, Mike Wheeler, wends his way around Kabul, expecting to buy a ride into Taliban-controlled territory merely by flashing money. Since the viewer is not aware of his full mental and emotional state until a good deal later, Mike is initially more frustrating than sympathetic.