The Boy Mir plot
British filmmaker Phil Grabsky got to know the Afghan boy Mir when he filmed him for the 2003 IDFA screening of The Boy Who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Mir had fled the north with his family and lived in a cave near where the Taliban had blown up the giant ancient Buddha statues. Grabsky decided to follow Mir for ten years. In The Boy Mir we see him grow from a playful eight-year-old to a young man with an uncertain future. Grabsky shows the daily life of a poor Afghan family and has Mir, his father and Mir's caring brother-in-law talk about what concerns them. They are back in their village in the north. It is quiet now, but progress is slow. Mir wanted to be a teacher or president as a child, but now she is mainly concerned with surviving. He must plow, gather wood and load coal into a perilous mine.