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Saving Mes Aynak

From the Middle East & North Africa • 58m

Directed by Brent E. Huffman • Documentary • 2015 • 58 minutes

SAVING MES AYNAK follows Afghan archaeologist Qadir Temori as he races against time to save a 5,000-year-old archaeological site in Afghanistan from imminent demolition. A Chinese state-owned mining company is closing in on the ancient site, eager to harvest $100 billion dollars worth of copper buried directly beneath the archaeological ruins. Only 10% of Mes Aynak has been excavated, though, and some believe future discoveries at the site have the potential to redefine the history of Afghanistan and the history of Buddhism itself.

SAVING MES AYNAK examines the conflict between cultural preservation and economic opportunity through the lens of the Afghan archaeologists and local villagers who work and live near Mes Aynak. Qadir Temori and his fellow Afghan archaeologists face what seems an impossible battle against the Chinese, the Taliban and local politics to save their cultural heritage from likely erasure.

"Advocacy filmmaking at its best and most chilling... That rare doc that needs to be seen."—IndieWire

Tags
afghanistan, anthropology and archaeology, archaeology, archeology, architecture, area studies, art and architecture, business, china, copper, critical thinking and ethics, cultural and ethnic studies, demolition, destruction, doc, economics, environment, ethics, expository, geography, history, icarus films, labor and economics, middle east, middle east and north africa, middle east studies, middle eastern history, mining, ovid, ovid_ca, philosophy, physical science, preservation, qadir temori, s_0016, s_0020, s_0066, s_0085, s_0090, s_0099, s_0122, s_0138, s_0197, s_0224, s_0266, s_0302, s_0447, s_0668, saving mes aynak, science and technology, sustainability, sustainable architecture, taliban, title_nopqrs, title_s, world history, world regions

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