Truly Dreadful Film

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

I really pushed myself in order to follow the movie up to the end. I lived in Afghanistan for 2 years as journalist. I spent in Bamian my vacations because it is so safe place to walk around. And I know very well places where the shooting has been done as well Hazaras. Problem is, that the subject of this film is so inappropriate because of nature of Hazaras - ethnic group who live in Bamian region. For a start - Hazaras are most depressed minority group in Afghanistan. Over history there have been a lot of massacres of Hazaras, and last one was 2001-2002 by Taliban. So it is most shocking to look at the feature film where little Hazara boys pretend to be Talibs - it is the same like to make a movie of Jude boys pretending to be Nazis… Secondly, Hazaras are most tolerant group inside Afghanistan (only Nuristanis are more tolerant, but they live in borderlands of Pakistan). There is no problem for women to walk around without burka (they like very colourful scarves). If you travel around you can see a lot of very simple schooling around – just school desks outside, even no cover or tent. There is no problem to study together – boys and girls – under 10. I have seen even 12-years old together in one classroom in Bamian. It could be very nice documentary of schools at Bamian. Nature is superb and people are just great. I was sad that young Iranian lady has not done her homework before shooting.

This Iranian film about a young girl who wants to go to school in Afghanistan is an utter delight largely due to Nikbakht Noruz who plays the young girl, Baktay. Humour is added to the story by the fact that Baktay's desire to go to school is because she wants to learn jokes after hearing a funny story in her friend Abbas's reading book. Going to school isn't as easy as it might seem; she is meant to stay at home and look after the baby while her mother is away, she also needs a note book and something to write with.For her the day is one big adventure, first she must get the ten rupees needed to get a book and find something at home she could write with. Once she has these she must get to the right school, as a girl she can't go to the same school as Abbas and between his school and the girls school she must pass a group of boys are playing "Talibans and Americans", they are taking the role of the Taliban and tell Baktay that she will be stoned; the viewer is left unsure just how far this game will go although Baktay doesn't seem too concerned for her safety, she just doesn't want to play. When she does finally get to the girls' school she is soon sent off again as the only thing she could find to write with was her mother's lipstick and the other girls in the class decided to use it; and no just on their lips. While she may not have been at school for long she seemed to have enjoyed her day despite certain incidents.The character of Baktay was really enchanting, she was headstrong in her determination to get to school but also had a delightfully mischievous streak which caused me to laugh out loud more than once. I was surprised to learn that director Hana Makhmalbaf was only nineteen when she made this, if she can make a film this good at nineteen I'm sure she will make some great films in the future. Filmed on location in Afghanistan many shots are overshadowed by the alcove in the mountain which housed an ancient Buddha till they were destroyed by the Taliban, an act seen at the start of the film. Even though it was filmed in Afghanistan there is no real sign of the conflict; yes the boys play Talibans and Americans but that doesn't seem much more sinister than western children playing cowboys and Indians.

Sometimes in life the simplest pleasures are the best, how true that statement really is. Sometimes in cinema the simplest plots are the best, in the case of 'Buddha collapsed of Shame' the latter statement is certainly true. In a part of the world renowned for its danger yet quite unknown, the very essence of the movie to portray life in the remote regions of Afghanistan through the eyes of a six year old girl is a masterstroke. It does away with the needless baggage that an adult would bring with them such as their political views, their in-purity and lack of innocence. The beautiful thing about it is the aim of our 'hero' is so very simple as are her ideals, yet because of the world she lives in she is presented with at times terrifying challenges. It truly is a ride that invigorates various emotions throughout it, and at the end of it all you leave it comforted yet troubled.

To tell a story without telling the audience what they should and shouldn't feel is courageous in any age; in this age of zealotry and cynicism, and especially in the film makers' own region, it is almost messianic...siddhartic even.And of course, what better way to cut through the bu11shit and get to the facts than to lay them out from a child's perspective? The innocent child who still has a free will shows us how the world might be if conditions were better; the innocent children who have been indoctrinated, thereby mirroring the adult world, show us how the sorry world of today really is.Children represent the truth, but not for long: the battle for their souls is the battle for the future.