DRAMATIC SHORTS-BUZKASHI

Buzkashi by Najeeb Mirza is a documentary about a sport, which is called Buzkashi, played in Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and throughout central Asia and the impact it has on the life of a man named Azam. He has two wives and ten children and Buzkashi is how he supports his massive family. His main competition, Khurshed and Askar, have some of their story added to the movie also. Khurshed is trying to change the sport into a team sport, and Azam is hoping it doesn’t change.

In Buzkashi, you are riding a horse in an open field with 60 or so other people. The way you score is by carrying a decapitated goat body through two blocks. You are allowed to hit other players with small sticks tied on strings and push each other off horses. They did a fantastic job of filming this. You felt like you were actually playing the game. They add scenes from the players daily lives into the film also, such as following them with their flock of goats in a stretch of open green fields.

Some parts of this movie were very interesting and some were just repetition of something that already happened. There was a lot I couldn't understand because they didn't explain the culture very well. Scenes cut in of just a man walking up a hill, were one of the many things that just made the movie even longer. Towards the end I was just waiting for it to end and starting to get board. I gave Buzkashi a 3.5/5 because I thought that it was very well put together for a film about something completely nonexistent to most cultures.