Private Project

Bread in Kalasha tradition

The 4000 Kalasha live in three narrow valleys in the Hindukush Mountains in NW Pakistan. With their own religion, the Kalasha minority is like a tiny island in a sea of Islam. Bread is their staple food.
We follow the making of bread from field to table in all links. Intimate family scenes show the fine skills of a woman shaping flatbread and walnut bread at the fireplace.
In the Kalasha religion purification rites are essential. We see bread in the purification rites of women during the winter festival and when a new born baby in the temple is presented to the family goddess. We see bread given as offerings at the shrines with prayers to God and the deities. We see dough used in medicine. Bread has a big social significance as well, in particular during the funerals when the community share the work of making bread for the hundreds of guest. Small bread are given the deceased in the coffin to take into the hereafter. The next morning, the guests throw small bread into the graveyard thus making the deceased remember them when they meet in the hereafter.
Eventually, we see the Kalasha making tiny bread figurines of goats that have a magical function, becoming alive in the high pastures.

  • Birgitte Glavind Sperber
    Director
  • Yasir Kalash
    Director
  • Birgitte Glavind Sperber
    Writer
  • Birgitte Glavind Sperber
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    33 minutes 57 seconds
  • Country of Origin:
    Denmark
  • Country of Filming:
    Pakistan
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    MiniDV
  • Aspect Ratio:
    3:4
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Distribution Information
  • Birgitte Glavind Sperber
    Distributor
    Country: Denmark
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Birgitte Glavind Sperber, Yasir Kalash

BIRGITTE GLAVIND SPERBER: Born 1942 in Denmark, M.Sc. in Biology and Geography from University of Copenhagen. Retired senior lecturer in Geography and Biology from University College South in Denmark.
Every year 1983-2008 and in 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2024 long stays, in total almost 3 years, among the Kalasha, a non-Muslim minority living in the Hindukush Mountains in NW Pakistan .
Education in social anthropology from Aarhus Open University. Author of books, as well as popular and ethnographic papers on the Kalasha. Since 2000 shooting with a camcorder. First film made at Danish Film Institute’s Video-workshop in Haderslev in 2001. Since then working alone at my computer at home.
13 of our Kalasha documentaries have been selected for screening at 24 international film festivals. Two have been awarded ("The Last Honours" and "Kalasha Medicine").

YASIR KALASH: Born in the Kalasha valley Rukmu about 1979. Graduated high school, Assistant teacher, Guest house manager. Yasir has been my friend since he was a little boy. When I started shooting with a camcorder, I lent him my camcorder to shoot the high pasture and the rituals and places permitted to men alone. I just taught Yasir to use the camera. Although grown up without a TV, he has a fine eye. Later I gave him my first camcorder with video cassettes. I communicate well in Kalasha. However, Yasir is essential for translating long stories and poetry precisely and helping in dialogues. For years, Yasir has been listening to the cultural experts and elders, who are no more alive, so he is now the finest Kalasha cultural expert. Although he does not have access to the big computer and editing software that I have at home, we are equal partners in the Kalasha films.

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Director Statement

Due to the global warming, flash floods hit the valleys and have washed away a big part of the fields, making people dependent on grain or flour bought from the outside. Some scenes are historical: Threshing machines from the outside roll up through the valleys and have replaced the oxen.