Osama

Afghan filmmaker, Siddiq Barmak, makes his feature film debut with Osama, a parable about life in Kabul under the brutal Taliban regime. The film won several awards at Cannes as well as the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film. Barmak shows skill in directing an entire cast of non-professional actors found on the streets of Mad Max-like Kabul. The film is lensed by Ebrahim Ghafuri who also shot Iranian Mohsen Makhmalbaff’s film, Kandahar. Although slightly didactic, Osama grips you from beginning to end and gives insight into a male-dominated society where fear reigns supreme and women’s lives are worth less than those of donkeys. Osama is currently screening at the Chauvel, Hayden Orpheum and Valhalla Cinemas.