Originally released as a motion picture in 2003.

Special features: "Sharing hope and freedom" interview featurette with director Siddiq Barmak; original theatrical trailer.

Director of photography, Ebrahim Ghafuri.

Marina Golbahari, Arif Herati, Zubaida Sahar.

This meticulous inquiry into the ways that ideological evil can infect, and ultimately destroy, the intimacies and small pleasures of daily life is beautiful, thoughtful, and almost unbearably sad. A widowed grandmother, mother, and daughter are facing starvation. Since the foreign doctors have been driven away, the mother's employment at the hospital ends. Thus the young daughter, at the risk of being discovered and killed, masquerades as a boy in order to earn money--a necessity since they cannot leave the house without a male escort. Snatched away from her job and sent to be indoctrinated by the Taliban, it is just a matter of time before she is given away. The Taliban's obscene wish for a world where the stringent enforcement of religious laws takes the place of human kindness is on full display, and as they employ their sadistic holy laws in the name of God, the only human response is horror.

MPAA rating: Rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements.

DVD ; widescreen presentation (1.85:1) ; Dolby digital mono ; region 1.

Soundtrack in Pashtu with subtitles in English; closed-captioned for the hearing impaired.

Golden Globe Awards, 2004: Best foreign language film.