How To Live with Death

The film takes you into dingy dojos, claustrophobic classrooms and in an expanding graveyard where men, women and the young people try to cope with the violence and death in their lives through an unexpected medium: martial arts. Hassan Akhlaqi, a teacher and martial artist, tries to guide the young people around him by teaching them the use of the Four Rules of Martial Arts. His words provide his students with the necessary language to navigate their emotions and experiences, and guides them towards non-violence. During this time the community continues to face persecution. Another incidence of violence takes place - a horrifying mass beheading of Hazara laborers working at a coal mine. As the bodies of the dead arrive for their funeral processions, Hassan Akhlaqi's words ground both the audience and the community as they experience the emotional turmoil of death and its aftermath.