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Tragic carpet ride

From the screenplay for Chuchi Qhalin, or the Adventures of the Little Carpet Boy, a puppet-based short film warning Afghan children about the dangers of land mines, produced by No Strings, a British non-profit that uses puppets to educate children.

STORYTELLER: Here in Afghanistan stories are more remembered than written, more spoken than read. They are passed from one storyteller to another, growing and changing like living things.

Chuchi Qhalin is alone on a mountain road at night, limping along a low wall on a twig crutch. He has already lost one leg from stepping on a land mine. He now sees a sign reading danger mines, stuck in the ground just behind a wall. He starts to climb over the wall. A skull on the sign suddenly comes to life.

SKULL: Hey, you, Carpet Boy! Where do you think you are going?

CHUCHOI QHALIN: To gather some firewood.

SKULL: Are you kidding! Don't you recognize me?

CHUCHOI QHALIN: I guess so, but I'm cold. I want to make a fire.

SKULL: So you're going to collect firewood here?

CHUCHOI QHALIN: Yeah, but don't worry. I'll be careful. I won't step on anything.

Chuchi Qhalin climbs the wall. There is a loud explosion. He flies through the air along with his twig crutch, his other leg, and much debris and smoke. He lands with a thud in front of the wall.

CHUCHOI QHALIN: I lost my other leg! Now I'll never get home!

SKULL: I warned you!

CHUCHOI QHALIN: I can't walk, and I'm so hungry and thirsty. I'll probably just die here.

Now with Jaladul, his camel, Chuchi Qhalin walks using a fork and a ladle he has found as legs. He continues walking on the mountain road until he is stopped by a goat and a toad who are standing near a UXO, an undetonated bomb.

GOAT & TOAD: Help us! We're starving!

CHUCHOI QHALIN: I'm sorry. I can't help you. I don't have any food, and I don't know when I'm going to get back to my grandmother's home.

GOAT & TOAD: You're in luck. Right there is a nice metal thing. My friend and I are too weak to pull it from the ground. If you just pull it out for us, we'll take it to the market, sell it, and buy a nice big, delicious meal for all of us.

CHUCHOI QHALIN: Okay!

Chuchi Qhalin starts to pull on the UXO. He takes off his ladle leg and whacks the UXO with it. There is an explosion and he flies through the air, landing on the ground with his fork leg bent and an arm missing.

CHUCHOI QHALIN: I don't deserve to be a real boy. I have ignored my lessons about land-mine safety.

JALADUL: Maybe it's good that you're not a real boy, because your grandmother can fix you. She couldn't if you were a real boy.

STORYTELLER: We hope that you have learned to be brave and wise and always listen to the lessons about land-mine safety, because you can never be repaired as though you were a torn-up piece of old carpet.

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SEE ALSO: Afghan War, 2001-; Afghanistan; Children and war; Land mines; Puppet theater

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