They hadn't seen anything like it - a film about their own town projected onto a big screen. In the background yawned the infamous 52-metre-high empty niche where once the larger of two standing Buddhas in Bamiyan looked upon the valley. The Taliban destroyed the pair of statues five years ago.
For centuries this valley has been the crossing path of monks, travellers, tourists, invading armies and wanderers - the once-famous Silk Road, connecting China to the Mediterranean Sea, passed through here.
But never before had a film , a documentary film about the Buddha statues, declared a UNESCO heritage site after they'd been turned to rubble , been shown here.
In fact, the city of Bamiyan, itself a provincial capital of 100,000 people, has never had a cinema.
Christian Frei's 2005 film The Giant Buddhas has been shown on screens all over Europe and North America but not in the place of its inspiration, in Afghanistan.
No comments:
Post a Comment