Toronto Human Rights Watch Film Festival

January 18, 2008
Tehran, Iran

To The Toronto Human Rights Watch Film Festival:

I was very happy to hear that you are screening my film Buddha Collapsed Out Of Shame on the Opening Night of a film festival that carries the title “Human Rights.” I am also disappointed I cannot join you on such a courageous occasion.

This December marks the 60th Anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, all over the world, human rights are still being violated by human beings themselves. I have asked myself for many years now: Who is doing the violating?

Recently, I found an answer to this mystery: I, you, he, she, we, they.

Despite having witnessed all the violent wars, fascism, jails, torture, genocide and poverty in the world, it continues. If we keep silent, we, too, are all participants in the violation of human rights.

Bakhtay, the little girl in the film, might not be aware of the fact that it is almost 60 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted.

In this unfair world, filled with inequality and injustice, and all alone on her own two tiny feet, Bakhtay wanders through the mountains and deserts of her country in search of something missing: that something is called Human Rights.

Thank you,
Hana Makhmalbaf