Osama
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Movie Reviews of Osama
Movie Review: Beautiful Vision of a Horrifying Regime's Role in Ruining the Life of One Child
Summary: 5 Stars
Osama
As a child, I was told that "elegance" is actually achieved through "simplicity." I was reminded of the integral relationship between these two seemingly disparate concepts while viewing Siddiq Barmak's remarkable OSAMA for the first time. The film is elegantly composed and framed, but the reason the film's "text" is so powerful, I think, is because it is told with such exquisite simplicity. The film is the first of its kind, a film shot wholly in post-Taliban Afghanistan with Afghani people starring in it, with Afghani production members, and with an Afghani writer/director. Also, it is a true story based on the lives of actual people living in Afghanistan The story is told through the eyes of a beautiful young 12-year-old girl who is forced to cut off her hair and don male clothing to help her mother and grandmother survive. Women are not allowed to leave the home without a man. And, these women have no such man since the father died in the war. So, the young girl becomes a boy in appearance and is re-named "Osama." The film follows this young girl's dangerous life as she is the victim of a string of atrocities when her true gender is discovered. The elegance and beauty of her story is entirely moving because of its genuine, unpretentious simplicity. You will forever be haunted by the sadness of her great, dark eyes as her destiny is lost in the "axis of evil."
Movie Review: Intense
Summary: 5 Stars
First there was Victor Victoria. Then Tootsie, and Mrs. Doubtfire. Comedies of cross-dressing. Wouldn't it be funny if a guy had to pretend to be a woman? Imagine the opportunities for unique situations, the hilarious laughs that would ensue.
Now imagine if a girl was doing the same. But this time, it's a matter of life and death. If she doesn't do it, her family starves. If her pretense is discovered, she faces death. Or something worse. And imagine if it's based on events that actually happened. Now you have Osama.
This movie shows how the gender divide can be something very serious indeed. If you are trapped in a world clearly defined, separate can never be equal. Marina Goldbahari is an incredible actress, displaying a natural nuance. I was repeatedly immersed in her world, concerned that she was going where she ought not, as if this were a real person. The camera angles are exquisite, as we see simulaneously within and without the protagonist of the moment. Indeed, for a long beginning section the Taliban are off camera, unseen, adding to their mystique as if they were a machine, slow, efficient, destroyng all life before them.
Osama is such a gut-wrenching movie, I had to pause for awhile after watching it. It is full of pathos, reaching in and pulling at all your being. Surely, there can't be a place, and a time, such as this. Dear God, surely not.
Movie Review: It took 9/11 to wake the sleeping giant unfortunately.
Summary: 5 Stars
A pro-war film that makes you wish they would of considered NUKES !
I am not serious about the Nukes thing but this film pulled at some strong emotions. This is a powerful film for many reasons. Not only does the subject deal with an issue breathing down our neck but it is an utmost powerful film that makes you understand how some people have to live of dirt for spiritual sustenance. I didn't know till the end of the film that the children were not trained actors but actual street kids and perhaps that is what added to the sense of realness to this documentary-drama. I recommend that you see this film and then try and figure out if this is political twaddle. This is not a film about the trauma of a little girl. This is a film about the evil that we have inside all of us and we have and the shame we should own up to when we fail to prevent a little girl from being tortured and molested by an Imam. It might make you feel proud to be an American but that would be a mistake because Afghanistan's primary supporters during this time were Greenbacks. If only our intelligence could have warned us about these people who blew up the Buddha that had been gazed upon by armies without harm dating back to the time of Alexander the great. It took 9/11 to wake the sleeping giant unfortunately.
Movie Review: Taliban
Summary: 5 Stars
Last night I saw one of the most moving videos I have ever seen, "Osama." It is the true story of a 12 year old girl living in Afghanistan during the Taliban. Incredibly well acted with amazing cinematography and filmed in Kabul, the little girl had to become a "boy" in order to save from starving her mother and grandmother.
Her father was deed and she had no male relatives. Taliban law did not allow a female to go outdoors without a family member male escort. Women were also banned from working. So she and her mom and grandmother were starving. Mom gets a great idea to dress her daughter as a boy so she could go outside escorted by her "male" relative. And so the harrowing on-the-edge-of-your-chair saga takes off.
The movie was funded by Iran per the movie's web site. Yet, the producer was still allowed to portray the Taliban in their agonizing Shaira law brutality to all and their almost hatred toward females.
The dialogue is in Pashtun (I guess) with English subtitles.
If the "we are seizing you boy for forced indoctrination into Taliban Islam" and the treatment of women in the movie under the Taliban are any where near the reality of Sharia law, we all should be terrified of this application of Islam.
Great movie.
Movie Review: A Sad But Powerful Movie...
Summary: 5 Stars
I show this movie to my class when I teach international relations. Without fail, Osama has an impact on people when they watch it. It is shot on site in Kabul, Afghanistan, so when you watch it you're viewing a frame of what it is like to be in this country, after nearly three decades of war and invasions.
The film depicts the life of a young Afghan girl, at age 12, who (along with her widowed mother) try to cope with what passes for a life in Kabul after the Taliban have seized power. Her mother loses her job at a local hospital, as the Taliban have banished women from schools, the workplace, and any allowance for public travel or appearance without accompaniment of a male relative. To counter this, the mother devises a plan to dress her daughter like a boy, so she can get a job and help provide for her family. The results must be seen to be believed and understood.
Ultimately, Osama is a terrible indictment of the deep misogynism of the Taliban and its variant of religious fundamentalism. More precisely, it illustrates what it is like to live in this kind of society, especially for women and young girls, and the effect it can have on the human psyche. This is a highly recommended movie for anyone that takes an interest in Afghanistan.