The film starts with the the footage of taliban militia dynamiting and demolishing the 6th century bamiyan Buddha statue. The film moves to the life of afghan people after the end of the Taliban regime, living in the cave houses in the mountain cliff in the bamiyan valley. Bahtai is a 5yr old girl child shown with her mother and younger brother.abbas is her neighbour and friend narrates to her the stories from his school text.bahtai is fascinated by the funny story of the man sleeping under a tree and a nut falling on his head and wanted to go to the school.she searched for her mother for the money to buy the book in vain. Later she takes the egg to the nearby market for the money.with the ten bucks she managed to buy only a book and decided to manage with the lipstick instead of pencil. She first went to the boys school but the teacher told her to go to the girls school on the other side of the river. on the way to the school she met playful children identified themselves as Taliban, they decided to stone her to death for going to school,shows the deep rooted bias against women in the afghan society.abbas arrives their and they branded him as the American spy and made him fall in a ditch. After that she met some other girls held hostage by the child Taliban.later a mock war was going on between the Taliban and Americans,and bahtai goes from their to the school. She trespassed in to a classroom and sits there until the teacher finds her and showed her the way out.she then meets abbas and says him that she studied herself.way home,they met children playing as Americans,and abbas mocks death when they shot. Bahtai runs away and film ends with Abbas saying : "Bahtai,die to set you free."
The film focuses on the social unrest that prevails in the afghan society even after the end of the Taliban regime,particularly,the bias against the women ,influence of the taliban regime in the society,poverty,lack of basic infrastructure etc. The final dialogue implies that the afghan women have to die to set themselves free from oppression and injustice in the society.the title of the film implies that the statue of buddha is not destroyed,but collapsed out of shame on the condition of afghans. Another realistic depiction of the life of post Taliban Afghanistan,in the debut film of hana makhmalbaf.
The film focuses on the social unrest that prevails in the afghan society even after the end of the Taliban regime,particularly,the bias against the women ,influence of the taliban regime in the society,poverty,lack of basic infrastructure etc. The final dialogue implies that the afghan women have to die to set themselves free from oppression and injustice in the society.the title of the film implies that the statue of buddha is not destroyed,but collapsed out of shame on the condition of afghans. Another realistic depiction of the life of post Taliban Afghanistan,in the debut film of hana makhmalbaf.