Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan
Phil Grabsky
2003 - 93 min - Couleur - Angleterre

For over 25 years, Afghanistan has been at war. Over two million civilians have been killed. In March 2001, the ruling Taliban destroyed Afghanistan’s foremost tourist attraction, the Buddhas of Bamiyan, for 1600 years the world’s highest stone statues. It caused an international scandal. Less well known are the hundreds of refugees who live in the caves alongside the ruins. Over the course of a year, this film follows the story of one of those refugees, an eight-year-old boy named Mir Hussain. Mir is fun, cheeky, inquisitive, energetic and bright. He also lives in a cave and owns virtually nothing - though to him this is normal; it is all he's known. The film is about Mir’s life through three seasons: Summer, Winter, Spring. In post-Taliban Afghanistan, there is no guarantee that Mir will survive life in a cave - the sickness, dirt, dust, the lack of water and food. Yet his engaging story is not one of gloom and doom, but that of a normal child who takes life as it comes.