Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame by director Hanah Makhmalbaf was first screened at Films From the South upon its release in 2007. It is being screened again now with its renewed relevance as testimony of the lives of women and girls under Taliban rule.

In the mountains of Afghanistan, in the village of Bamian where Taliban blew up the famous Buddha statues, we meet Baktay, a 6-year-old girl. She lives in one of the caves in these mountains with her mother and little sister. Baktay is a stubborn girl with big goals in life – she wants to join Abbas, the boy next door, in attending school. But there are insurmountable obstacles on her way to school. In the first place, she is to babysit her little sister and she has neither notebook nor pen. And, as if this is not too big a hindrance, she has to escape a gang of boys who have let their war games go too far – they have adopted the violence of the grown-ups and accuse her of being a spy.

Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame is a marvellously warm and moving film that seems almost frighteningly authentic – and much of the credit for this is due to the wonderful Nikbakht Noruz as Baktay. The performers in the film are all amateurs from the area and the empty caves where the Buddha statues stood serve as majestic backdrop for the action. The entire story is told by a lovely, persistent, young girl child who yearns to learn to read and attend school, and makes intelligent use of her mother's lipstick and four eggs taken from her home to attain her goals in life. The instantly memorable title of the film, Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame, is a quotation from the director’s father, the famous Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf: "Even a statue can be ashamed of witnessing all this violence and harshness happening to these innocent people and, therefore, collapse."

Panel Talk

Following the screening of Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame on the 20th of November at Oslo Cinematheque, we are hosting a panel talk at the same venue. Liv Kjølseth, Secretary General of the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee, leads a conversation with amongst others Torunn Wimpelmann (The Chr. Michelsen Institute for Science and Intellectual Freedom) about what will happen now in Afghanistan, and the importance of internationally applied pressure. What can Norwegian authorities do, in the UN Security Council and elsewhere?

This event is part of The Critical Room (TCR), the traditional forum for film and debate at Films From the South.

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