Film

User reviews of this film

• Laura Gilmour said...

  Posted on Sep 29 2011 14:56 Go and see this film! This is all at once a moving, insightful, humorous and heart-breaking documentary. The main character, Mir, whose life unfolds before us as we watch him grow from a playful innocent child to a more troubled and reserved 18 year old is instantly engaging. We watch Mir face the same challenges and desires as any other boy his age while, at the same time, struggle to come to terms with the war and what it means to him and his family.
  Forced to become refugees under the Taliban regime, the film opens to find Mir and his family living in a cave in one of the remotest parts of Afghanistan. Director Phil Grabsky visited the country over a period of ten years to make this film, capturing intimate scenes of the everyday life of this family as it struggles to survive.
  Set against stunning shots of Afghanistan, this film penetrates the heart of this fractured country revealing the devastating effects of war and a side of it the audience will not have seen before.

  Report as inappropriate

• Lailuma Rafe said...

  Posted on Sep 08 2011 10:08 In 2002 filmmaker Phil Grabsky followed the life of an eight-year-old Afghan boy over the period of one year in ‘The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan’. This year marked the beginning of a tumultuous decade for Afghanistan that was stirred by foreign occupation, hopes of liberation for the Afghan people, further political corruption, and the unyielding presence of Taliban forces. Over this volatile ten year period of change, Grabsky continues to follow the life of his young protagonist to capture how these changes have reflected on the everyday lives of the Afghan people.
  
  Grabsky’s film pulls away from scenes of violence and destruction which we usually see of Afghanistan, to instead immerse his audience in the lives of those living within a beautiful and peaceful landscape where it is poverty not politics that shapes the lives of Mir’s family and community. Mir, his father, mother, sister and half-brother settled in the caves of Bamiyan after abandoning their home in the north. They make this journey in search for a better life, the prospects of which lie before their eyes in the form of unfinished new homes, funded by foreign aid. When they do not receive a house, they return home to the north. There, young Mir and his older half-brother Khushdel are relied on to support the household. As the years pass Mir’s education suffers due to the family’s poverty. With food scarce, everyday survival becomes a struggle. Mir risks all prospects of future success and even his life to work at a coal mine with his brother. He does this not only to support his family but also, like any teenager, to attain a sense of individual fulfilment, buying a bike and then a motorcycle on loan so as to fit in with his friends.
  
  Although Mir’s circumstances are extraordinary, the child we are introduced to in the opening scenes is as lively, naive and energetic as any other eight-year-old boy. Mir’s humour and delightfully endearing smile define him in his early years to be an optimistic individual who enthusiastically speaks to his brother of his hopes of marrying and becoming a teacher or even the president. As time progresses and we revisit Mir throughout his teenage years, we see a young man that has still maintained his brightness but becomes weighed down by the reality of his family’s poverty and the responsibility he was born to bear as an Afghan man. More aware of the outcomes of his choices, Mir is perplexed by his options. He needs only to look at his broken and regretful half-brother to glimpse into his own future as an illiterate man. Mir’s supportive half-brother doubles his own work load as a means of allowing Mir to attend school regularly, so as not to end up in his own shoes. Mir’s indecisive father attempts to support him, but at times of frustration, urges him to abandon his schooling and work. Mir’s final option is to join the Afghan Army, but after seeing the bodies of several young men returned to his village, he is well aware of the dangers of involving himself in the conflict.
  
  Although politics remain in the shadow of Mir’s narrative, it is very much a part of his life. In his older years Mir’s community receives electricity, several televisions and mobile phones; benefits of the slightly more stable environment Afghanistan had become over the years. But Afghanistan remains far from liberated, and as we are shown Mir’s unchanging circumstances as the years pass, Grabsky constantly reminds us of the mounting cost of this war, which required almost 40,000 foreign troops by 2006 and reached an estimated 500 billion US Dollars by July 2009. Mir does not see his first foreign soldiers until 2010, and is unimpressed when presented with a few note books they offer his community as a gift. He echoes the voices of several other men in his community who distrust foreign troops and feel they have not benefited from the foreign presence in their country. But this is opposed by Khushdel’s story, and how he expresses happiness to see Mir growing up in better circumstances then he himself had experienced as a child of war and the oppressive Taliban regime.
  We are left wondering at the end of this film what path Mir will take in life. Grabksy offers his audience a uniquely personal insight into the challenges of everyday life for Mir and his family, whos' struggle and heart warming relationship make this film greatly enjoyable for all audiences and not only those interested in Afghanistan.
  After watching this film you will find that, in one way or another, you can relate to the relationships and challenges faced by these people living in this distant and mysterious land.

  Report as inappropriate