Charming and brutal

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

A Brilliant Conflict

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

The movie brings a reality of the women in Afghanistan to show very clearly how it is being a girl when your world is dominated by Taliban rules. Therefore, the movie collapses a message while is discussing gender rules and woman rights to work, in a implicit way, surrounded by a state of violence, misogyny and intolerance in a different cultural specter. This is a very interesting aspect that you realize by watching a foreign movie, so you can understand others life and see that exists different places, people and their social dilemmas, and all this subjects that you ignore comes out of the dark, moving your thoughts to the direction of comprehend society, values and ways to think in dominance and subjectivity control. Also, it has a genius ending that you can't expect if it is going to be a good a bad outcome to the main character, and then, like it was surprisingly obvious, as the movie approaches reality, you get a real end. This is an amazing movie from a country that I didn't expect to produce such an intense piece of work, and that makes you think about many aspects outside your familiar social zone.

Cruel reality, boring movie. Watched this because of 1001 movies list. Disturbing - yes, but that doesn't make a good movie. Simple plot, lots of crying, no fight for yourself or your family, just giving up. Distressed child in a disguise who doesn't understand what is expected from her and just wants to play. Predictable and annoying, as i said lots of crying and nagging, about a girl who worries too much about her hair. Other people try to help her, but she just doesn't give a ****, she doesn't even try and you see nothing, just sobby complains. Why did this one won golden globe for foreign film? "Good Bye Lenin" was way better. Well it seems the horror of real life is really effective if you want award, no one cares about quality. At least it's a quick watch, only 83 minutes.

For the years the Taliban had a grip over the people of Afghanistan, for the years they ruled and reigned until it took a Western task force, predominantly in the shape of the Americans, to overthrow them following the aftermath of September the eleventh, 2001 - cinema was banned and so was the notion of film-making. It would be very easy to label the ruling group, that were the Taliban, cruel. But it would actually be easier to label them rather stupid in the sense they had this tool, that was cinema and film-making, and chose to shun it. Many dictators from many-a nation have used cinema throughout history, from Hitler to Stalin to Fransisco Franco in Spain half way through last century - Franco even set up an 'Of National Interest' tag for Spanish films that made his government and political ideas look good, and have used it to their advantage. The fact they had this tool, however primitive it may have been, and rejected its power and possibilities for political manipulation and falsifying glorification is incredible.Here is the reaction to the overthrow: a film named 'Osama'. One that actually looks at life under the Taliban and documents it as accurately as we can only assume; from its rules and regulations to do with women, to its glimpses inside a Taliban training camp. What the Taliban shunned for those half a dozen years or so, refusing to use as a means of propaganda to promote their image comes back and bites them in 80 minutes of sheer documentation of their own rule. This is the payback, you might say. If I am brutally honest, I wanted to like Osama a lot more than I did but that is not to say I wouldn't recommend it. The film is exactly that: a documentation of what went on in a certain nation, at a certain time. The film does not shock as much as it does educate, which is still perfectly fine; the film does not demonise as much as it does document, which is equally fine but the film does not engage us with a greater variety of individuals as much as it does with one little girl, forced into cross-dressing to save her and her mother's life.Don't get me wrong, I liked Osama but when the 'evils' and wrong-doing the Taliban incurred on the people of Afghanistan have to be put across orally, through a series of wails and sobs of times gone by, you sort of feel a pinch linked to wanting to see a dramatisation of these events and a chance to really get a feel for what these people went through. I think Afghanistan, with the still relatively immediate post-Taliban set-up they've got, have a stunning film inside of them somewhere. With the now supposedly reformed nation that is Afghanistan, I can see their troubles under the Taliban told amongst a horrific, truly unnerving, sprawling canvas of cinema that incorporates the visual style plus disturbance of something like Children of Men combined with the heart-tugging substance of something like Hotel Rwanda or 2006 Malian film 'Bamako', both films that never exploited true-to-life events, but instead got across a sense of feeling, hurt and desperation as scenarios built to a hilt that would shape the lives of a group of everyday people.Instead, and to the film's credit after all, we have the wandering, searching approach given to us – the unconnected and random structure that sees its protagonist wander through their surroundings, slightly lost and without direction as they are thrust into a situation (forced to dress as a man) on top of an already desperate situation (life under the regime). The film is a collection of events strung together more than it is a story of actually living under the rule and despite starting out with the idea that this woman must rely on her young girl dressed a boy to bring home earnings to live, the film abandons this premise and relies on the girl venturing forth and getting into situations that will endanger her due to her secret.You cannot deny the spirit or sense of the Taliban remains. This is Afghanistan's first film shot entirely in their nation post-regime and it just so happens to share its name with that of the regime's former (or still current?) leader: Osama. Marina Golbahari plays the titular character of Osama and does more acting in this 83 minutes than some supporting talents might do in entire trilogies of blockbusters. She is sent out to work at a tea shop because there are no other men in her mother's life and a woman cannot legally leave her place of dwelling without a male escorting her. This set up is abandoned when many boys are snatched up from homes and workplaces in order to be trained by the Taliban for combat.Granted, within the passage of bits and pieces the film has its fair share of dramatic moments that make for great drama. There is an incident within an all-male wash room that is obviously going to be a little awkward as well as a scene in which once in the camp, many of the other boys point out the young girl, randomly assigned the name Osama I might add, for teasing and unwanted attention. What I wanted out of Osama was a more-visceral, more terrifying account of life under Taliban rule. What I got was a documentation of the nation's prior difficulties; forever embedded within the film from the opening shot that clearly echoes a documentary as a camera-man is attacked. For what it is, Osama is engaging and affecting in places, but do not be surprised if an Afghan filmmaker fabricates something more affecting and more brilliant in the future.

Is it possible to agree with the filmmaker's point of view and still objectively review this film? Reading most of the comments above, apparently not. Let us separate the movie's substance from its execution. I'm no fan of the Taliban, but I'm not a fan of this film either. Way too long. Not a great performance by the girl. Did not work for me on an emotional level. NOT a good movie.In contrast, a successful movie of this gender is Hotel Rwanda. You didn't have to buy in to the filmmaker's agenda to be moved by it.My other problem with the other comments is that they blindly take the movie to be completely true. It's not journalism people! Sad but *true*? How do you know? The movie is *based* on reality. Not to be taken *as* reality. Even if the movie is spot-on true, that fact is irrelevant here. We're here to talk about the movie. Not the Taliban.