Osama

A remarkable film about the persecution of Afghani women during the Taliban regime. Filmed in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban, it tells the story of a woman who has lost her husband and son, and must disguise her daughter (an astoundingly good Marina Golbahari) as a boy so she can work and put food on their table. The plan goes wrong when the girl, alias Osama, is plucked from the store where she works and placed in a school for young boys, a training ground for future Taliban soldiers. The film is a stunning depiction of the insanity that drives the Taliban, with unforgettable imagery and sequences, such as scenes in which Osama is suspended in a well and sold to an elderly man as a slave wife. This isn’t an uplifting movie in any sense, and its conclusion is a sudden and deliberate downer. The sound of Osama crying stays with you long after viewing the film.