Priceless Paintings from W7

So, you read the Kite Runner and thought it was a wonderful, and wonderfully sad, book. Next you went and read A Thousand Splendid Suns, also by Khaled Hosseini, and you were choked with love and sadness for the women of Afghanistan, and disgust and deepest resentment for the Taliban.

Have you seen Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame yet?

I have never watched a movie that was so lovely and so heart-stopping choking, so sad and so uplifting at the same time… OK, maybe there are some others of similar quality (such as Life is Beautiful), but they are rare and far in-between.

Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame tops it by the fact alone that it is an Afghani movie made in 2007, located in the exact rubble left by the Taliban when they destroyed the Buddha statues of Bamyan in 2007. The movie tells the tale of a 6 year old girl (Nikbakht Noruz), who wants nothing more than go to school. Almost the entire cast are children, (seemingly) filmed on location.

One of those very quiet and sad movies that make you a different person within 81 minutes. Heartbreaking, and well worth watching. UK residents might still get it on iPlayer. Others will just have to find it somewhere. Well worth looking out for.

Thoughts Afghanistan, BBC Television