August 30, 2008

2:00 pm

free
details here:
http://www.nga.gov/programs/flmchild/

August 30 at 2:00
East Building Concourse, Large Auditorium
The beauty and grief of present-day Afghanistan receives poetic treatment from eighteen-year-old Iranian filmmaker Hana Makhmalbaf. Set in central Afghanistan’s Bamiyan Valley, where in 2001 Taliban soldiers destroyed centuries-old sculptures of Buddha carved into the cliffs, the film is a haunting journey into the minds of the children who live in that desolate area. Amidst the rubble of the massive statues, an endearingly obstinate six-year-old Afghan girl, Bakhtay, wants to learn to read and write. After hearing that a school for girls has opened up across the river, she sets out on a mission to attend. The film follows Bakhtay as she faces obstacles, including her family’s poverty and indifference to education, on her way to school. She must also traverse a no man’s land, where she is “captured” by a band of boys who delight in playing war games that mimic the violence they have witnessed. Bakhtay’s arduous journey across the river becomes a metaphor for Afghanistan’s own difficult transition. This film is being shown in honor of the exhibition Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul, on view in the East Building through September 7, 2008. In Farsi with English subtitles (Hana Makhmalbaf, Iran/France, 2007, 81 minutes)

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