Review of 'Purple Hibiscus', Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Fourth Estate £12.99
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's debut novel, Purple Hibiscus, describes a Nigerian family living in a country torn between contradictions. Although a military coup unsettles the population - streets erupt with riots as soldiers hunt down dissenters - the story's main protagonist, Kambili, lives a protected life in Enugu.
Review of 'Bad Education', director Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar began his film-making career as a new Spanish society took shape at the end of dictator Franco's rule. During the 1980s transition period to democracy the politically disenchanted people found a voice in the new cultural movement, movida. Hedonistic and anarchic, it had a strong impact on its followers and Almodóvar's future work. Bad Education is set against the backdrop of the movida in Madrid, where we meet Enrique Goded, a young, successful film director.
Review of 'Osama', director Siddiq Barmak
Kabul's sandblasted and windswept streets set the opening scene for Osama, the first film released about Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban. A flood of widows in cornflower blue burqas, demanding the right to work, sweep the viewer convincingly right into the middle of the drama, where a western cameraman captures the commotion. Guided through the crowd by a mischievous boy called Espandi, the camera lens drowns in water when armed Taliban enforcers arrive to halt the illegal demonstration with water cannons.
