Osama (2003)

[BeyondGeography]

Click here for the whole film:

Cinema at its powerful best, IMO, and, unhappily, newly relevant. Anchored by an incredible performance by Marina Golbahari:

And Barmak's protagonist truly is helpless, in a way that films rarely have the courage to convey. This is no wishful feminist parable about a strong-willed young woman facing tough odds. "Osama" is a weak, confused, foolish girl, a pawn not only of the Taliban but of her mother and grandmother as well. She passively watches her life unfold as if she were outside of it, but with a constant fear in her eyes that shows she knows she's not. Those eyes are perhaps the greatest marvel in this somber, eloquent film. Golbahari, like the rest of the cast, is not a professional actor, yet her face is as evocative as that of any movie star. When she is silently watching, her eyes have an almost disconcerting intensity. Now fourteen years old, Golbahari was one of thirteen children and begged in the streets before Barmak found her. She reportedly witnessed the death of one of her sisters in a rocket attack. It is hard not to wonder, with sadness, what else those young eyes may have seen.

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2004/05/the-movie-review-osama-and-kandahar/69427/

Golbahari now lives in exile (France) and has received death threats for being photographed at a South Korean film festival without her head covered.

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[mopinko]

1. rly good movie. not about bin laden.

hard to watch, tho.