Film review on 'Buddha collapsed out of shame'

"Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame” is a movie directed by Hana Makhmalbaf which takes place in modern Afghanistan following the removal of the Taliban. The story describes the war in Afghanistan and consequences toward the local children. This movie centres on a six-year-old girl, Bakhtay, who is eagerly seeking for an education. After seeing her neighbour, Abbas with a schoolbook, Bakhtay becomes so determined to go to school. She claims that she wants to go to school to hear funny stories. Unfortunately, she is asked to take care of her little brother, but she ended up ties her brother so that he can’t escape and she heads out for schooling. However, she can’t find her mother to buy her a book and pencil for school. She has to take four eggs of the family’s chicken to sell at the market to earn money. Sadly, she only manage to sell two eggs and afford a notebook. Then she takes her mother’s lipstick as writing instrument and follow Abbas to go to school after dressing up with a scarf. At first, she arrives Abbas’s school but she gets rejected for staying there as it is a boy’s school. On the way to the girl’s school that locates across the river, she meets and gets bullied by a group of boys playing a game in which they’re Talibans fighting Americans. The boys throw stones at the Buddha statues and it shows the destruction of the Buddha statues of Bamiyan and their destruction by the Taliban. They terrorise Bakhtay because she carries a lipstick with her, and they make her to become the victim of the war game. It shows the inequality of gender that female will get punished if they wear lipstick. They rip pages from her book and fold them into paper aeroplanes, cover her face in a paper bag and tend to bury her in a hole that they make and stone her to death. They don’t let her go even if Bakhtay begs for so many times, 'In God's name, let me go to school,' she begs. Eventually Bakhtay escapes from them and arrives the girl’s school. On her way back home, she meets the gang of boys again and she and Abbas are surrounded by them with their ‘weapons’. The boys are shooting them and in the way to get rid of them, Abbas decides to ‘die’. While Bakhtay is still alive and running away from them, Abbas yells ‘Lie down!’ at Bakhtay and tell her that ‘If you want to be free, you must die!’ In the end, Bakhtay pretends to die so that she can find peace. This movie ends with the shocking 2001 newsreel scene of the Taliban blowing up the gigantic statues of the Buddha in Bamyan, it gives spaces for the audience to think. ‘Buddha collapsed out of shame’ shows the saddening truth on how war affects children’s thinking from the different perspectives. I was also impressed by the acting of the main characters, it is so simple yet they manage to convey the theme and message of this movie so perfectly at such a young age. On the other hand, the tempo of this movie is quite slow and I would not recommend this movie to youngster because this movie might be boring and pointless for them. However, I personally think that this is a brilliant movie that it succeeds in showing the audience the damages that wars can bring, not only death or economy loss, but it will also bring bad influence on our leaders of tomorrow, children. I feel so lucky and blessed to live in a war free country and given an opportunity to have my education.