Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame.

"Iran's Makhmalbaf family make films like most of us eat breakfast," writes Derek Malcolm in the Evening Standard. Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame "is by 19-year-old Hana, who directed The Joy of Madness, a documentary about the making of her elder sister Samira's film, at Five in the Afternoon. Rough and ready as it sometimes is, this broadside against the Taliban, set in the Afghan city of Bamian, works wonders at times."

The Guardian's Cath Clarke finds the "film builds up an overwrought symbolism that fails to hit the mark dramatically."

Buddha "takes place... where the famous stone Buddhas were blown up by the Taliban," writes Mike McCahill in the Telegraph. "Life goes on amongst the rubble: after six-year-old Bakhtay (Nikbakht Noruz) overhears a neighbour reciting his ABCs, she resolves to get in on this education lark herself... Throughout, Makhmalbaf juggles extraordinary scenes of observation and tension, filling the screen with indelible imagery, while making a near-iconic figure of young Bakhtay herself: a little shy and snotty-nosed, but hellbent on improving herself by any means necessary."

"What the film says about contemporary Afghanistan is unclear, other than life is tough, tougher if you're a woman, tougher still if you're a girl," writes Kevin Maher in the London Times.

The New Statesman has a quick chat with Makhmalbaf.

Earlier: Ryan Gilbey in the Guardian; and J Robert Parks.

Posted by dwhudson at July 25, 2008 6:30 AM