The Makhmalbaf family’s youngest member, Hana, made her fiction filmmaking debut with this heartbreaking portrait of contemporary Afghanistan, set in the notorious town of Bamian, where the Taliban had destroyed several centuries-old statues of Buddha in 2001. Amidst the rubble, a bright young girl dreams of going to school, but her head-down endeavors are constantly thwarted by obstacles—physical, financial, social, or personal. Even her pint-sized peers offer more threat than comfort, too busy playing either “Taliban” or “American soldier,” complete with fake guns and all-too-real makeshift graves, acting out a violence that may officially have paused, but continues on internalized. A study of the scars that wars leave on children and the struggle they face to overcome them, Buddha finds its small joys in the face of its protagonist, a child who won’t be defeated. “A deeply affecting but wholly unaffected picture, direct, truthful, and unsentimental” (The Guardian).