Osama (2003)

Director:

Siddiq Barmak

Writer:

Siddiq Barmak (writer)

Release Date:

27 June 2003 (Afghanistan)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

A 12-year-old Afghan girl and her mother lose their jobs when the Taliban closes the hospital where they work...

Plot Keywords:

Taliban | Boy | Girl | Afghanistan | Widow

Awards:

Won Golden Globe. Another 14 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Marina Golbahari	...	Osama
Arif Herati	...	Espandi
Zubaida Sahar	...	Mother
Mohamad Nader Khadjeh
Mohamad Haref Harati
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Gol Rahman Ghorbandi
Khwaja Nader
Hamida Refah

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements.

Runtime:

83 min

Country:

Afghanistan | Netherlands | Japan | Ireland | Iran

Language:

Pashtu | English | Dari

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Malaysia:U | Finland:K-11 | South Korea:12 | USA:PG-13 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Norway:11 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Kabul, Afghanistan

Company:

Barmak Film

Trivia:

Director Siddiq Barmak was helped in the making of his film by leading Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf who gave him $100,000 funding and the 35mm cameras and equipment he needed. Makhmalbaf also persuaded his regular cinematographer Ebrahim Ghafori to work on the project.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Osama: Sharing Hope and Freedom (2004) (V)

Thank the USA for the hard-line Taliban regime in Afghanistan

Reviewers of this movie should get real about the origins of this bizarre Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Unhappy at having a lawless heroin-producing region on its southern flank, in the 1980s the Soviet Union installed a progressive president and started educating women and building schools and hospitals across the mountainous land, causing not inconsiderable consternation among the conservative Islamic mullahs of the traditional tribal religion. Zbigniew Bresjinski, of the US National Security Agency, visited Afghanistan on behalf of President Jimmy Carter and conceived of a great way to drive the Soviet left-wingers out: mobilise the Moslems. "Organizing, training, and funding radical Mujahedeen in Afghanistan—--including Osama bin Laden—--is considered the CIA's 'largest and most successful CIA operation in history' and 'the one morally unambiguous crusade of our time,' according to George Crile, a veteran producer for the CBS' 60 Minutes. (See The Largest Covert Operation in CIA History by Chalmers Johnson.)" Hundreds of thousands of Holy Korans were published in Chicago (I'm not making this up) and distributed to Madrasa schools across neighbouring US-client Pakistan, where a substantial force of Islamic radicals was armed and trained by US specialists. They subsequently deployed in Afghanistan and fought a 12-year guerrilla war, using US weapons and special forces techniques, that finally caused an imploding Soviet Union to withdraw. The Taliban filled the resultant vacuum. The schools and hospitals that they shut down, and which were shown in Osama, were Soviet-built, not US built. Until then, the USA had been quite happy to leave the Afghan men and women at the mercy of tribal warlords. As it turned out, the Taliban, although effectively installed by the USA, did not handle negotiations with the wholly corrupt and kleptomaniac Enron Corporation well. Nor was their purging of the heroin crop popular in certain western quarters. In the spring of 2001, after a Taliban government delegation toured the USA, US/Pakistani diplomats threatened the Taliban with military action if they did not cave in to the demands of Enron and the US-based oil cartel. The events of 9/ll conveniently gave Uncle Sam a reason to invade and blow away the Taliban who up until then the US had been quite happy to negotiate with. The new pro-US government immediately started negotiations over an oil pipeline and the heroin crop was restored to the point where the UK, Europe's largest heroin consumer, now relies on Afghanistan for 90 per cent of its needs. So it's worth remembering, when confronted by the unpleasant face of the Taliban government, that Uncle Sam helped destroy the schools and hospitals, trained the Moslem terrorists, facilitated the Taliban regime, and when the moment came, destroyed it and restored both the heroin crop and the warlords.