Film Review: Osama

Osama is a heart-rending movie that provides some insight into the plight of women in the early Taliban rule in Afghanistan. Sidiq Barmak, the director, has based this story on a true event. A young girl (Marina Golbihari) and her widowed mother (Zubaida Sahar) participate in a demonstration for women's rights to work to earn a living. The Taliban break up the demonstration and the mother and girl hide from the Taliban with a local street kid, Espandi (Mohamad Aref Harat). Later, when the hospital where the mother works is taken over by the Taliban, the mother loses her job and livelihood. In a desperate move to survive, the mother shaves her daughter's head and dresses her as a boy to send her out to work. The girl is forced to attend school and she meets up again with Espandi who becomes her friend. Espandi names her Osama. She has to struggle to survive by maintaining her disguise as a girl. A 'depressing' but important movie - the first all-Afghani-acted feature film since the end of Taliban rule in Afghanistan. Marina Golbihari is outstanding as the young girl who conveys (mostly without speech) deep emotions. This film won an honorable mention at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. My Rating **** out of 5 Other Reviews '"Osama" is like a film from some long-ago age. Although it takes place in Afghanistan, it documents practices so cruel that it is hard to believe such ideas have currency in the modern world.' - Roger Ebert 'Without a word of preaching, Barmak provides a stinging condemnation of the kind of social and cultural stagnation that can arise when religious fanaticism becomes the Law.' - James Berardinelli Buy Osama from Amazon.com

Do animals have a sixth sense

The tsunami in the Indian Ocean is an incredibly devastating disaster -- it is almost impossible to come to grips with the extent of death, destruction and injury that has fallen on so many people. Our hearts go out to all who are suffering as a result of this tragedy. One of the stories that I have heard recently is that no elephants and  wild animals have been found along with the suggestion that animals seem to have a sixth sense about impending disaster. Kevin Paine has written an informative response to this idea here. As he quite rightly says, with the overwhelming human crisis we are having to deal with, maybe worrying about the number of dead animals is right down the bottom of our list of priorities at the moment. Check out Kevin's comment here.