In Afghanistan, during the Taliban regime, women are forbidden to work and to walk on the streets without the company of a male. The teenager girl Osama (Marina Golbahari) cuts her hair and dresses like a boy to get a job and support her widow mother and grandmother. There is no men in her family, since her father and her brother were killed in previous Afghan wars, and the family has no means of survival. When Osama, disguised as a boy, is called by the Taliban to join the school and military training, the boy Espandi (Arif Herati) tries to help her.
"Osama" is a spectacular film, based on true events, and the interpretation of the amateurish cast is so perfect that sometimes the movie looks like a documentary. It is amazing how different from Western cultures is the life, religion, streets, houses of the Afghan people, and how repressed the women are in this evil system. Although being aware of many atrocities of this fanatical power, through articles in newspapers and magazines, this movie is so real and impressive that makes the viewer feel in the skin the difficulties of the life of this poor people. This is the first film made in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban. In accordance with the interview of the director Siddiq Barmak in the Extras of the DVD, Marina Golbahari was accidentally discovered four days before the beginning of the shootings. The girls had never watched a movie in a theater, and did not have a TV. Two days before the beginning of the shootings, Barmak met Arif Herati, and decided to create a special character for him, not foreseen in the original screenplay. The boy requested the director to buy his dogs to accept the invitation. This movie was awarded many international prizes, among them the Golden Globe (Best Movie),Golden Camera (Cannes Festival) and Best Movie (London Festival), and certainly deserves to be among the IMDb Top 250. My vote is ten.
Title (Brazil): "Osama"
