Osama

No, not that Osama. This is about a movie filmed in Afganistan after the fall of the Taliban. It concerns a girl who must pose as a boy (taking the name “Osama”) to support her family. If you love foreign films that give you a glimpse of other cultures, as I do, rent this one. Its portrayal of the humanity of ordinary Afgans is touching, but even more moving is its picture of the Taliban. These are no cartoonish monsters. Rather, they’re all-to-human monsters. Their treatment of Afgan women, boys, and girls is rooted in their own lust and greed, cloaked with a twisted form of religion that they use to justify their consciences. There are lessons here about human nature that go far beyond the Taliban itself.