Death of a Dirty One

The first movie produced by Afghanistan filmmakers after the fall of the Taliban, Osama is a searing portrait of life under the oppressive fundamentalist regime. Because women are not allowed to work, a widow disguises her young daughter (Marina Golbahari) as a boy so they won't starve to death. Simply walking the streets is frightening enough, but when the disguised girl is rounded up with all the boys in the town for religious training, her peril becomes absolutely harrowing. Golbahari's face–beautiful but taut with terror–is riveting. The movie captures both her plight and the miseries of daily life in spare, vivid images. At one point, her mother is nearly killed for exposing her feet while riding on the back of a bicycle; for the entire scene, the camera shows only her feet, with the spokes of the wheel radiating out behind as she lowers her burka over them.

Nils (Stellan Skarsgård) is a snow plough driver somewhere in Norway. He learns that his son has died, supposedly of a heroin overdose. Nils knows his son was no addict and starts a private investigation. Soon he finds out the local drug gang is behind the crime. He hunts down the two killers and kills both of them, but not before they confess. Based on this information, he goes after their boss, but finds himself in the crossfire between two rival gangs: one local, one "imported" from Serbia.