This 2003 drama follows a widowed mother and her daughter in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. As they struggle to make ends meet in that closed society, their only hope is to have the girl pose as a boy so she can work. The movie’s roots go back to the neorealist tradition of post-World War II Italy. Using actual locations and nonprofessional actors – the lead actress, Marina Golbarhari, was found on the street – Afghan director Siddiq Barmak tells his story with a startling verisimilitude. You nearly choke on the dust that’s kicked up by the characters’ feet. Barmak also has a talent for the lyrical, loaded image, as when Osama plants her freshly cut pigtail in a flowerpot. It’s a gesture of equal parts hope and despair – a perfect symbol for living life as a woman under the Taliban.
