THOUSANDS OF WOMEN parade through dusty streets, covered in blue burqas. They float around the impoverished city like ghosts, their burqas concealing their entire body, from the tops of their heads to their feet. They are chanting, “We are not political. We are widows,” as they demonstrate for the right to work. Suddenly, trucks rumble in the distance and the women scatter–screaming men attack the women with fire hoses and live ammunition. A lone blue burqa is washed down the muddy street, and women stare out from their hiding places, crying quietly.

This is the world of director’s Siddiq Barmak’s debut film, “Osama.” The first film produced in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban, Barmak explores the suffering of women under the Taliban regime. An unnamed, 12-year-old girl (Marina Golbahari) is forced by her mother (Zubaida Sahar) and grandmother to shave her hair and pretend to be a boy. “But if the Taliban recognize me, they will kill me,” she protests. Since her mother’s husbands, and all male relations, have been murdered in Afghanistan’s numerous wars, the family is in dire need for a male relation to serve as a breadwinner. Under the Taliban, women could not go out in public alone or work for a living–the family faced starvation if Golbahari could not work. It is an absurd plan, highlighting the desperation of Afghan women. Golbahari’s high-pitched voice and delicate features put her in danger of capture at every moment, and creates a low-simmering, agonizing tension throughout the film.