And Barmak's protagonist truly is helpless, in a way that films rarely have the courage to convey. This is no wishful feminist parable about a strong-willed young woman facing tough odds. "Osama" is a weak, confused, foolish girl, a pawn not only of the Taliban but of her mother and grandmother as well. She passively watches her life unfold as if she were outside of it, but with a constant fear in her eyes that shows she knows she's not. Those eyes are perhaps the greatest marvel in this somber, eloquent film. Golbahari, like the rest of the cast, is not a professional actor, yet her face is as evocative as that of any movie star. When she is silently watching, her eyes have an almost disconcerting intensity. Now fourteen years old, Golbahari was one of thirteen children and begged in the streets before Barmak found her. She reportedly witnessed the death of one of her sisters in a rocket attack. It is hard not to wonder, with sadness, what else those young eyes may have seen.

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2004/05/the-movie-review-osama-and-kandahar/69427/

“The United States has no closer or more reliable ally than Australia,” Biden said on Tuesday ahead of a bilateral meeting with Morrison on the sidelines of the United Nations general assembly in New York.

“They’re just having a sook.”

It’s a sentence that has been heard a few times over the past 48 hours, as Coalition MPs rubbish any suggestion that Australia has seriously harmed itself in infuriating France over dumping the $90 billion submarine deal.

It’s a thuggish mentality, devoid of humility, that encapsulates everything that is wrong about Australian foreign policy at the moment. The idea that we couldn’t have done this any other way is laughable for a number of reasons.

First, the Morrison government should not have given France the impression that the submarine deal was back on track over the past six months. As recently as June this year, French President Emmanuel Macron backed Australia in its worsening tussle with China, standing alongside Prime Minister Scott Morrison in the Elysee Palace courtyard in Paris. What Macron didn’t know was that four days earlier, Morrison had used a meeting with US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to discuss the secret plan to ditch the French submarines and build a nuclear-powered fleet with the United States and Britain.

Second, Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Defence Minister Peter Dutton should not have agreed to significantly enhance defence cooperation with their French counterparts less than a month ago when they were about to announce the submarine deal was dead.

…Australia hasn’t just angered the most important European power in the Indo-Pacific. It has dragged its greatest ally, the US, into a diplomatic row with Europe at a time when Biden is trying to mend relations in the continent after years of Donald Trump publicly snubbing European allies. Australia’s actions right now have serious implications on the world stage and there are questions about whether our diplomacy has been strong enough to support our strategic intentions…

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-s-foreign-policy-is-getting-clumsy-and-arrogant-20210918-p58ssr.html

The United States and Australia went to extraordinary lengths to keep Paris in the dark as they secretly negotiated a plan to build nuclear submarines, scuttling France’s largest defense contract and so enraging President Emmanuel Macron that on Friday he ordered the withdrawal of France’s ambassadors to both nations.

Mr. Macron’s decision was a stunning and unexpected escalation of the breach between Washington and Paris, on a day that the two countries had planned to celebrate an alliance that goes back to the defeat of Britain in the Revolutionary War.

Yet it was driven by France’s realization that two of its closest allies have been negotiating secretly for months. According to interviews with American and British officials, the Australians approached the new administration soon after President Biden’s inauguration and said they had concluded that they had to get out of a $60 billion agreement with France to supply them with a dozen attack submarines.

…But it was unclear how they would terminate the agreement with France, which was already over budget and running behind schedule. “They told us they would take care of dealing with the French,” one senior U.S. official said.

…American officials insist it was not their place to talk to the French about their business deal with Australia. But now, in light of the blowup, some officials say they regret they did not insist that the Australians level with the French about their intentions earlier.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/17/us/politics/us-france-australia-betrayal.html