Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame

Thousands of families still live beneath the statue of Buddha destroyed by the Taliban. Baktay, a six-yearold Afghan girl, is inspired into going to school by their neighbors’ son who reads in front of their cave. On her way to school, she is harassed by boys playing games cruelly mimicking their violent society. The boys want to stone Baktay or destroy her like the Buddha or shoot her like the Americans do in the labyrinth of caves. Will Baktay be able to overcome these obstacles in order to learn the alphabet of her mother tongue?
Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.
Script: Marziyeh Meshkini
Cinematography: Ostad Ali
Editing: Mastaneh Mohajer
Sound: Hossein Mahdavi
Music: Tolib Shakhidi
Actors: Nikbakht Noruz (Baktay), Abdolali Hoseinali (Talib boy), Abbas Alijome (Abbas)
Production: Makhmalbaf Film House, Iran & Wild Bunch, France
Producers: Maysam Makhmalbaf
Art Direction: Akbar Meshkini
Format: 35mm Color
Production Year: 2007
Duration: 81

Hana Makhmalbaf

She was born in Teheran in 1988. She comes from a distinguished family of filmmakers (daughter of Mohsen Makhmalbaf and sister of Samira Makhmalbaf). Her first short film, The Day My Aunt Was Ill, was presented at the Locarno FF in 1997, when Hana was only 9. At the age of 14, she made the documentary Joy of Madness, about the shooting of her sister’s film At Five in the Afternoon, and at the age of 15 published her first book of poems, Visa for One Moment. Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame is her first feature.

Filmography

1997 The Day My Aunt Was ill (short)
2003 At Five in the Afternoon (doc.)
2007 Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame