This movie is torture, not just for the main character, but for the audience. It's also perfect in its portrayal of the eradication of hope, light, and everything good in life. Throughout, the viewer hangs on to the edge of hope, thinking that somehow, the courageous Osama will make it after all. But in the end, it becomes apparent that such hope is futile in a situation like that portrayed in the movie (a dystopia, not -- I pray -- a real picture of life anywhere in the world). This movie does an amazing job of conveying the utter brutality of life in a developing country where poverty, fundamentalism, and the struggle for survival dance around each other, only to entrap the residents in a web from which there is apparently no escape. I'm an optimist, but the movie showed me that optimism is easily folly. That being said, I do have faith that people everywhere are capable of more good than many of the characters in this movie.
Review of Osama
