Le cahier

I stumbled upon this film on TV while feeling rather down. At first I thought it was a documentary and was interested by it, after 5 minutes I was hooked.

As the story unfolded I soon realised that it was a film that captures a realism rarely seen on screen, nothing in this film seems contrived if anything it is ad hoc and natural.

I couldn't believe how much I instantly warmed to the characters especially the central character.

Without giving anything away this feature moved me, disturbed me, humbled me and left me in awe.

You need to see this film for yourself, any description I could give would be a disservice to it.

It all starts with the Talibans blowing the Buddha statues away. This is somewhat the platform for the rest.

A little Afghani girl wants to go to school. She can't afford a notebook and a pencil, but she finds her way. But there are other obstacles. One of them is this boy gang, who is playing Talibans and Americans. But are they really playing? One of the most moving scenes is there the girl physically tries to find her place at school, but is rejected. The tempo is slow according to action standards, but the pictures are often beautiful and full of drama in a way action is light-years behind.

In a similar approach to Begnini's 'Life is beautiful', or John Boyne's 'The Boy in the Stripped Pijamas' (now becoming a film), the director shows our own ugliness as seen through the innocent and clever eyes of kids. The whole story happens in their world, and we only see adults from waist down, as seen by kids, although the reflection of the evil they cause affects children in a shameful way, as the title suggests. It is a very sad story not only because,as always, the innocent have to pay for the crimes of the powerful, but also because in their eyes, the politics of power, domination and war is bare, without excuses, in all its monstrosity. Although the story is set in Afghanistan, a country that has been suffering all kind of conflicts, these are problems happening all around the world, because very few are the areas which have not inflicted and suffered, in some time of their history the abuses of power the film points to: racism (pashtun attacking hazara kids, considered inferior), sexism (segregated schools, girl insulted and attacked for being 'a woman'), fundamentalism (kids playing the taliban torturing and mock killing hazaras and/or girls), international abusive and interested invasions (kids playing the American spy, and the American soldiers attacking and bombing other kids)and poverty suffered mainly by children, living in caves and with no access to school, having to take care of small brothers as their mothers have to works, fathers being nowhere.

The girl protagonist is wonderful, and the photography of the film very beautiful. A simple, funny, entertaining and beautiful story which, mirrors our evil through the innocent and beautiful eyes of a kid.

To tell a story without telling the audience what they should and shouldn't feel is courageous in any age; in this age of zealotry and cynicism, and especially in the film makers' own region, it is almost messianic...siddhartic even.

And of course, what better way to cut through the bu11shit and get to the facts than to lay them out from a child's perspective? The innocent child who still has a free will shows us how the world might be if conditions were better; the innocent children who have been indoctrinated, thereby mirroring the adult world, show us how the sorry world of today really is.

Children represent the truth, but not for long: the battle for their souls is the battle for the future.

I really pushed myself in order to follow the movie up to the end. I lived in Afghanistan for 2 years as journalist. I spent in Bamian my vacations because it is so safe place to walk around. And I know very well places where the shooting has been done as well Hazaras. Problem is, that the subject of this film is so inappropriate because of nature of Hazaras - ethnic group who live in Bamian region. For a start - Hazaras are most depressed minority group in Afghanistan. Over history there have been a lot of massacres of Hazaras, and last one was 2001-2002 by Taliban. So it is most shocking to look at the feature film where little Hazara boys pretend to be Talibs - it is the same like to make a movie of Jude boys pretending to be Nazis… Secondly, Hazaras are most tolerant group inside Afghanistan (only Nuristanis are more tolerant, but they live in borderlands of Pakistan). There is no problem for women to walk around without burka (they like very colourful scarves). If you travel around you can see a lot of very simple schooling around – just school desks outside, even no cover or tent. There is no problem to study together – boys and girls – under 10. I have seen even 12-years old together in one classroom in Bamian. It could be very nice documentary of schools at Bamian. Nature is superb and people are just great. I was sad that young Iranian lady has not done her homework before shooting.