Osama

Like Mohsen Makhmalbaf's garlanded Kandahar, Siddiq Barmak's Osama springs up colourful and frightening.

The first film shot entirely in Afghanistan since the rise and fall of the Taliban, and it's a heartbreaking look back at life under that regime.

We've heard so much about the cruelty of the Taliban that we think we've heard it all. But there's something about seeing one small human story played out that is still overwhelming.

The film is a succession of virtually unrelieved horrors and humiliations, each of them individually quite convincing.