We often measure casualties of war statistically. But doing so only serves to distance us from the reality of the pain and suffering. It also dehumanizes the cost of war: it becomes about numbers, rather than people. One Bullet, from documentarian Carol Dysinger, is the story that may have been buried in the mass of statistics of the war in Afghanistan. It is not just about an injury and a death; it looks at legacies that grow out of a single shot.
Dysinger traveled to Afghanistan several times during the war. She went looking to find what was really happening there. Her first film from that exploration was Camp Victory, Afghanistan. She later made the Oscar® winning short documentary Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl).
This film begins on one of her early trips to Afghanistan when she was embedded with a military unit that was investigating what happened when 14 year old Fahim Hajji was shot. Fahim was a civilian who was hit by someone in a military convoy. It was definitely NATO forces, and likely American. The unit is trying to find conclusive proof of American involvement in order to determine if the US will provide financial compensation. She goes into the hospital where Fahim is learning he’ll probably never walk again. By the time she returns home, there has been no finding in the case.
Years later, when she goes back the Afghanistan, she decides to check in to see what has happened with Fahim. She discovers that the report on the shooting is classified. She also learns that Fahim has died. She visits his mother Bibi. Bibi invites her back soon for lunch. Over many visits Bibi and Dysinger become close. Over the ten year-long course of the film, we see the relationship between these women break down the distance that culture and nationality would expect.
We also meet one of Fahim’s brothers, Fawad. Fawad was deeply affected by Fahir’s injury and death. At first he is angry at the lack of justice. That anger grows as promises are broken. In time his anger morphs into a deeper attention to Islam. He becomes increasingly devout, but he uses that devotion to reinforce his anger. When, at one point, he presents Dysinger with an English translation of the Quran, we sense that this is not so much a gift as a minor act of aggression.
The contrast between Bibi’s and Fawad’s response to Dysinger’s presence in their lives speaks to the ambivalence with which America is seen. The two women, even though they have very different lives, can bond over a cup of tea and discussing Bibi’s 53 (!) grandchildren (and Dysinger’s lack of husband and children). But we get the idea that for Fawad, she represents all the pain that has come to their family and nation because of America’s presence.
These varying relationships are complex, but all grow out of one bullet that changed the lives of the Hajji family. I have no idea how many bullets were fired in the long Afghan war. But each of those bullets carried the potential of a story such as this.
One Bullet is playing in the Breakout section at Slamdance Film Festival.
