a little girl called osama
alone with her female child and facing stravation and the taleban's mandate that no woman may work or be outside the home without a legal male companion, a mother disguises her 12-year old daughter as a boy so that she may earn them an income. that is the true story told by osama, the film made in afghanistan shortly after the fall of the taleban and which won the golden globe for best foreign-language film sunday. the film used an amateur cast of actors drawn from the streets and refugee centres. the star, marina, was discovered as she begged on the streets. afghani filmmaker siddiq barmak, who wrote and dirtected osama and also runs the afghan film organisation and is director of the afghan children education movement, an association that promotes literacy, culture and the arts, is featured in an interview in today's edition of fresh air (npr).
