Osama
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Movie Reviews of Osama
Movie Review: Sad and scary story set in the joyless world of the Taliban
Summary: 5 Stars
This 2003 film made in a post-Taliban Afghanistan depicts the horrors of that awful regime through the tale of a 12-year old girl who is disguised as a boy so that she can find work and support her mother and grandmother. It's a sad and scary film and I had to pinch myself to remember that this kind of thing happened just a few short years ago.
The film is cinematically impressive, opening with a shot of hundreds of women dressed in blue burkhas protesting the new rule of being forbidden to take jobs. Soon the Taliban arrive and use hoses and bullets to stamp out the rebellion. We see small children crying and women fleeing in terror. Two of these women are a young 12-year old girl and her widowed mother. The mother used to be a doctor but is no longer allowed to work. She tries to earn a small amount money by caring for a former patient but she always has to have a male escort and even then the Taliban stopped them because, even though she was wearing a burkha, her toes were showing as her patient's father escorted her home on his bicycle. When the patient dies, she has no work at all.
Soon it becomes clear that the grandmother and mother will starve if the young girl does not go out to work. They cut her hair and get her a job with a sympathetic former comrade of her father who died fighting the Russians. Soon, though, all the young boys are rounded up to be trained as young soldiers for the Taliban. The girl, who has taken the name "Osama", is thrust into a male-dominated world.
I have seen several films with this common theme. One of them was the Iranian film "Baran". The other was the American film "Yentl" where a young Jewish girl dresses as a boy in order to study. In both of these films, there was a romance. And "Yentl" was actually a comedy. But as I sat in horror watching "Osama", it didn't take long for me to realize that this story was no "Yentl."
When the young girl is finally discovered, the consequences are awful. She is taken to a stadium where there is a woman being stoned to death. The girl is saved, however, by an old man who agrees to marry her. She is then taken to a sad home where he keeps many wives. They are virtual prisoners for the rest of their lives and, even though some of them have children, there is no joy in that household. As they prepare the girl for her wedding night, there is a feeling of hopelessness and desperation and we know she will never see her own mother or grandmother again.
A film like this makes me again aware of the freedom and abundance I take for granted. My heart goes out to the poor people who have suffered so much under the Taliban and for the grueling poverty under which they still live.
Movie Review: Both brilliant and heartbreaking
Summary: 5 Stars
Filmed on a small budget, this may represent one of the most important works to come from Middle Eastern cinema in a long time. In Afghanistan, when the repressive Taliban regime declares that no woman may appear in public without being escorted by a male relative, and that no woman may work, a twelve-year-old girl (performed brilliantly by amateur Marina Golbahari) must do the unthinkable in order for her widowed mother and grandmother to survive: Disguise herself as a boy and find work. From that day on her life is in constant peril, as she must be extraordinarily careful not to be revealed...for as the film makes very clear, severe punishment--and sometimes death--awaits those who defy the fundamentalism of the Taliban. When she is "recruited" by the regime and sent to an all-male re-education camp, keeping her gender a secret becomes nearly impossible. The film's sudden ending--without a true resolution--is genuinely unnerving: Much is left up to your imagination, and given what you know about the Taliban, you know that a happy ending is unlikely.
Searing, disturbing, powerful, and even uplifting, "Osama" reveals the utter subjugation of women--epitomized by the oceans of body-covering, formless blue burkas seen throughout the film--under the severity of Taliban rule: little is omitted or withheld by director Siddiq Barmak, who gives voice to the silent millions--both male and female--who suffered under the rigors of fundamentalism. Although fictional, Barmak's film is based on the ruthless reality of life under the Taliban. Barmak exposes the terror of their everyday lives, the fear and anguish that made living in Afghanistan pure hell. It's a difficult film to watch, as cruelty and hopelessness hold sway over much of the film. Barmak puts the viewer on an emotional roller-coaster: We are treated to both moments of savagery, desperation, and horror, to instances of love, peace, and hope. The director evokes excellent performances from his cast of amateurs. At the film's emotional center is Golbahari, who is a revelation as "Osama," displaying a range and maturity rarely seen in someone so young. Equally good are Zubaida Sahar as her mother, and Arif Herati as the street urchin Spandi. Barmak--who was trained as a filmmaker in Iran--also shows subtlety when needed, often allowing scenes to speak for themselves, without dialogue. The impact and significance of this film cannot be underestimated. A Golden Globe winner for Best Foreign Language Film, "Osama" is a must-see film.
(One last thing: This film has the probably unique status of being recommended by both George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton.)
Movie Review: One Girl's Survival in Afganistan; Strong and Sad
Summary: 5 Stars
Golden Globe Award winner "Osama" may remind you of a certain person. The fact is, the "Osama" is about a 12 year-old girl who must survive the life in Afganistan when the Taliban ruled the city with their rigid dogmas, prohibiting many things -- photoes, music, and women going out without a male accompanied, let alone working.[STORY] is about the unnamed girl whose family have no male relatives. This means they cannot go out to work, and the girl takes a desperate remedy -- she has her hair cut, and disguises herself as a boy, in order to work at a kind milkman's shop. Only a boy who sells scent in the street knows the truth, but how long can this trick go on when the Taliban regime seizes the power, ruling the place with fear?
[DIRECTOR] Siddiq Barmak, born in Afganistan, learned the filmmaking in Russian school (then USSR), so "Osama," often slow and quiet as it is, has a very sophisticated touch with the smooth camarawork. If you are not accustomed to watching the non-English speaking films from, say, Iran, you find it a rather tough watching at first, but as the story goes on, the film gets more intense, drawing your attention to the film's world.
[THE GIRL] is played by Marina Golbahari, who was literally "found" by the director when she was begging on the street to provide for the family. In spite of the fact that she was an amateur (the Talibans banned any films), she is THE heroine the director was looking for, and you know it if you see her very sad eyes. Actually, her eyes are strikingly pure, telling every emotion of the heroine so naturally.
[ABOUT THE ENDING] Don't worry, no spoiler. Still, you have to know that the director's first intention was different. In the original version, the girl goes away into the "rainbow." (That is why the grandmother's short story about the girl and the rainbow is included.) But Director Barmak decided on deleting it completely, watching that Golbahari could not stop crying, remembering the painful past while shooting (her father was tortured by the Taliban). So, the film ends with an open ending, which, unintentionally gives an impact, heightening the authentic tone of the film.
"Osama" is no political adenda though it will make you think about the gender, religion, and the US policies. Above all, however, this is an intense drama about a girl's life. I simply wish the happiness of the girl in film, and Marina Golbahari herself.
Movie Review: Life In A Nightmare World. A Powerful, Gripping Film!
Summary: 5 Stars
Never-ending hopelessness, terror, misery, despair, death were all part of a female's lot in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. This was a world where womanhood was a terrible flaw, although it did have some utility for men - especially those in charge. If I didn't know that this dark, gritty film was based on fact, I would think it was horrifying science-fiction. The first movie produced after the fall of the Taliban regime, "Osama" has won many awards, culminating in the 2004 Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film. Afghani filmmaker-director Siddiq Barmak portrays the grim reality of oppression in this stark, powerful piece.Young Marina Golbahari is outstanding as the 12 year old Afghani girl who is forced to masquerade as a boy in order to earn a living for her desperate family. Her facial expressions often communicate more than pages of dialogue could. Woman were forbidden to work under the Taliban, and those without husbands, brothers or fathers to provide for them starved. Golbahari, hair cut, dressed in her dead father's clothes and named Osama, has a widowed elderly grandmother and mother depending on her. She finds a simple job minding a complicit neighbor's store. Her disguise seems to work until the Taliban round up all the neighborhood boys, "Osama" included, to send to the local religious school, (Madrasa), which doubles as a military training camp for youths. The consequences are predictably catastrophic.
This is one of the most extraordinary films I have seen in a long while. There are scenes that appear to have been shot with a hand held camera and look like something an undercover journalist might turn in for viewing outside the country. Since filming was forbidden, these jumpy, jerky shots, and images at odd angles, give a clandestine and extremely realistic feel. Many of the scenes are shot without words, and do not need language to communicate the fear, oppression and tension in just in walking down the street. In one sequence, a man is berated and threatened by the Taliban mullahs for allowing his wife to ride on the back of his bicycle, thereby exposing her ankles.
The film is deceptively simple and may, at times, appear naive, but the message is a grim one - and heartbreaking. I thought I had some kind of basic understanding of what the women of Afghanistan went through. I wasn't even close. This is a real eye-opener and well worth your time.
JANA
Movie Review: Heartrending
Summary: 5 Stars
Some months ago, I saw a film entitled KANDAHAR, in which a Afghan-Canadian woman endeavors to smuggle herself back into Afghanistan to talk her sister out of a planned suicide. Though the audience sees the wretchedness of life under Taliban rule, and the shameful way in which women are treated, the film as a whole lacks impact because the plot's thread of continuity degenerates into a series of vignettes without a substantive ending. The viewers' sympathies may remain detached. Not so with OSAMA.Osama (Marina Golbahari) is a pre-adolescent girl living with her mother (Zubaida Sahar) and grandmother (Hamida Refah). It's a family without men, both the mother's husband and brother having been slain in the war against the Soviets. Since women are not allowed out in public without a man, the mother - evidently a health worker by training - must earn money for the family by surreptitiously seeing patients. But that doesn't bring in enough to keep from starving. So, it's decided to cut Osama's hair, dress her as a boy, and send her out into society to get a job. For awhile, she works in a shop run by a kind and generous man that served in the war with her father. Then, one day, the Taliban does a sweep of the town, forcing all young boys to attend a school of fundamentalist Islamic instruction. In this all-male environment, Osama's false identity unravels with terrible consequences.
I generally watch movies for their entertainment value. But there are films that serve as sobering instruction about the blighted corners and medieval practices of our planet, and this film is one of these. As a representative of this genre, OSAMA packs a big punch. The women-denigrating practices of a Taliban-dominated society rank right up there with enforced footbinding and female castration, and I can't imagine any person of ordinary sensitivity or conscience leaving the film unaffected. Indeed, a militant feminist may be tempted to lash out at the first man she encounters without thinking of first kissing the ground of the Western democracy she's fortunate enough to live in.
The very last scene of OSAMA simply shows an old mullah taking a ritual cleansing bath, which seems innocent enough. But it implies a new level to which Osama's misery has been taken, and one should weep for her.