this film was the Golden Gate winner for 2004 Best Foreign Language Film. now comes on of my greatest pet peeves about the synopsis and reviews on the cover of a movie or book or whatever. it as if the people writing these reviews and synopsis' have either never even seen the film or are just blatantly obtuse or detached from the reality of human suffering. the New York Post described it as "powerful, beautiful, simply extraordinary". true it was "powerful",it went into great depth of the overwhelming fear of the oppressed, repressed , exploited people of a certain chaste of Afghanistan, generated through utilizing torture, every form of abuse, rape, humiliation, and intimidation. and there is nothing "simple" about this "extra ordinary" projection of life of the powerless people it portrayed. and it sure was out of the "ordinary" as far as standards go for the privileged goes, who on the whole do not experience the "extraordinary " atrocities and all forms of denigration these people experience in their daily lives. it was hardly "beautiful" as the women were subjugated to being summarily rounded up, imprisoned on a the slightest whim and then beaten, raped, buried alive, or as this one woman...stoned to death by a gleeful mob after being wrongfully accused of uttering obscenities. "Bold, Beautiful, Deeply Moving" (boxoffice (who in th e h*** are they)).i guess you could call it "bold" for them to interrogate, torture and execute by firing squad (at least they did not saw off his head in front of millions of eager observers, eh?) for filming a documentary on Afghanistan life. and we are all painfully aware that they absolutely do not appreciate satire...bombings, death follows? "Deeply Moving"...their sadistic militaristic manner in which they corralled and herded the woman and children that were at a gathering to beseech the government to allow them to work as they were starving to death. they were hosed down with torrents of water, fired routinely on by gunfire, thrown in cages, beaten, raped, and killed, woman and children alike. and i would say again, it was "bold" of them to raid the hospital, shooting and destroying everyone and everything inside as everyone that were able were fleeing in panic...patients and caretakers alike. there was an especially poignant shot of a severely crippled boy of about 5 years of age abandoned by the fleeing crowd as he desperately tries to hobble along in order to not be left behind. "Beautiful" (again) and so positively stated by the director.."filled with hope". "Hope"...Osama, the girl forced to be transformed into a role as boy so that she can go unescorted to work in order to bring home a watermelon and a few scraps of meet for the family, is just so filled with this "hope" as she "embarks on a terrifying and confusing journey" to avoid detection from the taliban (this is not the journey you or i may take after paying five to tens of thousands of dollars to some guru to become enlightened)...NOT!!! she is full of extreme anxiety, fear, terror (yes) and i would daresay she would have loved "confusing". this journey of hers took all of ten days from the time she worked for an old man (that dies because of this kindness),was "recruited" (forcibly ) into the talibans training camp for boys (10 yrs up, if not younger)where they teach you the qua ran's rituals such as how you wash your genitals in three different direction, (and allah help you if you didn't preform each ritual in the exact order and way in which they dictated1), to the time she is discovered. she is taunted, teased, hung from a rope suspended over a seemingly bottomless well (hysterically crying for her mother), after which she is jailed. at her trial she is sentenced to a marriage with the oldest, the most sadistic, most perverted man of the taliban who takes her home to be locked up along with the other woman and children he has abused to no end. her "journey" full of "hope" ends with her being all trussed up and presented to the creep who then asks her to choose which iron chastity belt she would like before brutalizing and raping her (at the age of 12yrs. remember) for the rest of her life. and that is just how the movie ends...just "beautiful" and full of "hope"! in all good conscious end here without mentioning the unfortunate husbands and sons who were forced to leave their families and homes, usually to never be seen again. it was certainly an eye opener for me in that these civilians would be abducted anytime day or night and anytime between, a rifle put in their hand, and sent off to some obscure place to fight the russians, Germans,Americans, whoever... all and all a "stunning" (Enteertaiment EWeekly), "Emotionally Charged" (Sceen International", and a "striking work of cinematic art"(Daily News). but i am sorry to say that i hardly found it "breathtaking" (Slant), but "extraordinarily" heartbreaking"!!! "NOTHING SHORT OF ASTONISHING" (N.Y. Times)...does that leave you with the impression it did me...that absolutely no one at the NY times watched this movie. i read this morning..."that the heart is an artist that paints over what profoundly disturbs you, leaving on the canvas, a less dark, less sharp version of the truth." i am an artist and i do not think so! this should be a required film to be seen be all those quo are either in denial or are immune to the many "inequities" that exist in the world since time immoral up into what is now the 21st century, submitted with the utmost respect and love... jamie jo Jesus <br /><br />i realize i would be hung, burned at the stake, tortured, crucified, stoned to death, and more if republished this in iraq..if not now? at least then. and if we don't once aging rally ourselves to do something about these injustices now...then when?