The first movie produced by Afghanistan filmmakers after the fall of the Taliban, Osama is a searing portrait of life under the oppressive fundamentalist regime. Because women are not allowed to work, a widow disguises her young daughter (Marina Golbahari) as a boy so they won't starve to death. Simply walking the streets is frightening enough, but when the disguised girl is rounded up with all the boys in the town for religious training, her peril becomes absolutely harrowing. Golbahari's face--beautiful but taut with terror--is riveting. The movie captures both her plight and the miseries of daily life in spare, vivid images. At one point, her mother is nearly killed for exposing her feet while riding on the back of a bicycle; for the entire scene, the camera shows only her feet, with the spokes of the wheel radiating out behind as she lowers her burka over them. --Bret Fetzer
(15 votes)
2.
A 12-year-old girl, her mother, and a local village boy narrowly survive the brutal end of a peaceful demonstration organized by women who are oppressed by the cruel Taliban regime. After witnessing such inhumane treatment, the mother is reminded of her own hardships as she and her daughter struggle to maintain their existence. With the young girl's father and brother killed, they must find any source of income they can while hiding it from the strict Taliban, which mandates that no woman may work or be outside the home without a legal male companion.
The mother and her daughter care for patients at a sparse, under-stocked hospital run by foreigners. After a Taliban raid, the hospital is shut down and the mother and daughter are without income. Desperate for any type of job, the mother is forced to cut her daughter's hair and dress her as a boy so that she might earn money for the family.
The mother pleads with a grocer who knew her husband to help her and hire the young girl to work in his store. He agrees and attempts to protect the girl - now disguised as a boy - and teach her how to be more convincing. One afternoon, the Taliban's religious police force all the men to a mosque for prayer. The girl, unfamiliar with the ways men pray, makes several mistakes and raises suspicion with one of the Taliban officials overseeing the ritual. He approaches the grocer and the girl after the prayers and questions them. The girl is filled with fright, but with the grocer's help dispels the official's doubt.
The following day, all the boys of the village are corralled and taken to the Madrassa, a religious school which doubles as a center for Taliban military training. While attending the school, the girl's masculinity is constantly called into question. The young village beggar from the first scene, aware of the girl's secret, interjects and helps her, concealing her true identity by declaring her name is Osama.
After increasing suspicions surface with the students and Taliban instructors, the girl is punished for not being able to complete a task proving her masculinity. In the end, the girl's own physiology defies her to reveal her true identity.
As a result of her monumental lie, she is put on trial in front of the Taliban court and sentenced to marry an old Mullah. Upon arriving at his home, the destitute girl discovers he has three other wives - and she's forced to join them in their miserable world.
(15 votes)
3.
A Golden Globe winner for Best Foreign Language Film, this powerful and "remarkable" (Film Journal International) drama chronicles the journey of a young girl in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan who must disguise herself as a boy to save her family from starvation.
(15 votes)
4.
Set in Afghanistan, just as the Taliban began to take over, as women found themselves forbidden from coming out onto the streets unless accompanied by a man or a boy. The story focuses on a mother and a grandmother who have no living husbands or sons, so they disguise a daughter (Golbahari) as a boy named Osama so that she can escort her mother as she leaves the house, looking for work.
(15 votes)
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