A powerful and disturbing film of what life was like under the oppressive Taliban rule. Maybe because the cast are not actors and it starts with a boy talking to the camera as if it's a documentary being made it feels like what unfolds is actually happening and this makes it a very real and chilling experience. A film that should be seen.(8/10)
80 Reviews
Filmmaker Barmak's "Osama" has its share of suspense drama - much is conveyed in a mere 1 hr. 22 mins.
ruby_fff29 February 2004
The film felt like a documentary - it was simple and straightforward. "Osama" captured many aspects of what life is like during Taliban's occupation, through the eyes of a 12-year old Afghan girl, within 1 hr. 22 mins. - it's more than most Hollywood movies manage to get across in 2 hrs. For a debut feature, w-d Siddiq Barmak delivered a quietly poignant film - it may not be evident at first impression right after seeing the film with the sadness and injustice it burdensomely carries. As I was re-telling the film's plot to someone who missed the showing, it came to me how succinctly the film tells/exposes what the women and children, and men, had to tolerate under such atrocious regime. The poverty level and misfortunate situation/predicaments are almost unspeakable.
The portrayal of Osama by Marina Golbahari is impressive: the bewilderment and fear on her face, the rare break into a smile we get to catch, her wailing and cry and crying - mostly delivered in a speechless manner. The other child actor, Arif Herati, who played the one who tried to shield her from trouble by the other boys, gave a brief but convincing Espandi. There's also Osama's mother and grandmother, and the neighbors, and the men who were 'helpless' in spite of wanting to help - the roles and scenes are all touchingly stirring. There are suspenseful moments and one wonders what would happen next - outcome could be predictable yet its share of drama and humanity lessen not. As a relieving contrast, a coming of age boys lesson in a Turkish bath setting was included - suspense and intrigue a-mixed. Barmak gave us a well-paced film, missing not a chance to provide insight to the cultural aspects of the people.
"Osama" brings to mind other similar 'hard medicine' films: Iranian director Jafar Panahi's `The Circle' 2000 (aka "Dayareh"), is the empathetic telling of the mistreatment/misfortune of four women in an unsympathetic society; director Michael Winterbottom's docudrama `In this World' released through 2003 Sundance Series, gave us an unflinching look into 'human cargo smuggling' of an Afghan refugee, 16-year old Jamal, with the persistent slim hope of a better livelihood in Britain; Xavier Koller's `Journey of Hope," the 1991 Academy Award's Best Foreign Film, is a heartbreaking tale of enduring/diminishing hope.
On a different note possibly more hopeful, though family poverty, hardships of Afghan refugees and girl posing as boy to obtain work are still the ingredients, we have "Baran" 2001, another worthwhile filmic experience from Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi ("Children of Heaven" and "Color of Paradise".)
The portrayal of Osama by Marina Golbahari is impressive: the bewilderment and fear on her face, the rare break into a smile we get to catch, her wailing and cry and crying - mostly delivered in a speechless manner. The other child actor, Arif Herati, who played the one who tried to shield her from trouble by the other boys, gave a brief but convincing Espandi. There's also Osama's mother and grandmother, and the neighbors, and the men who were 'helpless' in spite of wanting to help - the roles and scenes are all touchingly stirring. There are suspenseful moments and one wonders what would happen next - outcome could be predictable yet its share of drama and humanity lessen not. As a relieving contrast, a coming of age boys lesson in a Turkish bath setting was included - suspense and intrigue a-mixed. Barmak gave us a well-paced film, missing not a chance to provide insight to the cultural aspects of the people.
"Osama" brings to mind other similar 'hard medicine' films: Iranian director Jafar Panahi's `The Circle' 2000 (aka "Dayareh"), is the empathetic telling of the mistreatment/misfortune of four women in an unsympathetic society; director Michael Winterbottom's docudrama `In this World' released through 2003 Sundance Series, gave us an unflinching look into 'human cargo smuggling' of an Afghan refugee, 16-year old Jamal, with the persistent slim hope of a better livelihood in Britain; Xavier Koller's `Journey of Hope," the 1991 Academy Award's Best Foreign Film, is a heartbreaking tale of enduring/diminishing hope.
On a different note possibly more hopeful, though family poverty, hardships of Afghan refugees and girl posing as boy to obtain work are still the ingredients, we have "Baran" 2001, another worthwhile filmic experience from Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi ("Children of Heaven" and "Color of Paradise".)
A comment on identity that transcends culture.
gareth1-121 October 2005
The use of Afghan culture as a medium for the commentary this film delivers shouldn't be misinterpreted. While it does serve to educate the viewer about the violent impact of religious fundamentalism and the raging inequality of conditions women have faced in Afghanistan, it also teaches the lesson of what happens when an individual defies the established rules of sexuality, a lesson that can be as relevant in Ohio as in Afghanistan. Osama is not just a girl, but a girl who masquerades as a boy in order to survive; the torment she endures in return is not just a demonstration of the cruelties of of fundamentalist Islam, but the cruelties of society as we know it.
Barbarism is not confined to any people, any nation, or any religion, and it would be a grave mistake to misinterpret (whether accidentally or otherwise) the aim of such a poignant film. Osama is skillfully produced and acted, and serves as an artful and immersive vessel for its sentiments.
Barbarism is not confined to any people, any nation, or any religion, and it would be a grave mistake to misinterpret (whether accidentally or otherwise) the aim of such a poignant film. Osama is skillfully produced and acted, and serves as an artful and immersive vessel for its sentiments.
realistic, deliberate, and on a grave subject (9 out of 10)
Babak16 May 2004
I'm not going to give an account of the plot of the movie, which according to some other reviewers on this forum--and I may add that I agree with them in words--is very simple. The simplicity of the brutality that was brought upon the Afghan people by the Taliban of course does not need many words to convey. Everyone who has heard of the words "oppression," "religious extremism," and "brutality" can give an account of the dreadful reign of the Taliban over Afghanistan. So, I'm totally amazed by the, dare I say, shallow perspective of some reviewers here that take this simplicity as a weakness of the movie. I don't think that the simplicity and/or familiarity of the plot tells *anything* about the strength or the weakness of the movie, nor does it decrease the gravity of the story.
Another alleged weakness of the movie I wish to dispel is its slow pace. I hardly see why that could be regarded as a weakness when in all its seconds the movie is conveying so much (visual) emotion and from such a close shot. You get to see the real--as far as my experience goes--behaviour of the mullahs, the real mechanisms by which they take hold of the vortex of power in such a war-ridden land.
On a slightly different note, I was quite surprised to read the feature review on the first page of the movie info, Eyal Philippsborn write "was it the setting or did the Taliban also banned the building of houses with roofs?" well, was it the setting or the catastrophes of about 30 years of civil war and social chaos, Eyal?
Another expressed criticism I read in the previous reviews was that such deep and engulfing sense of misery cannot possibly be the truth. This is an attempt to reduce the level of the movie to some sort of intellectual propaganda. I have to completely disagree. For two reasons: first of all, in the limited time-span of a movie, one cannot possible hope to see all aspects of life. The director has to choose what s/he wants to show and convey, and quite understandably this movie is about the plagues brought upon an entire nation by the Taliban. And secondly, even though the movie mainly focuses on the miserable life of its characters in such surrealistic-to-the-western-eye settings, it does show tiny glimpses of the beauty of life: the lullaby that the grandma sings to put the little girl to sleep, or the joyful, threatening Espandi (the boy with the smoking bucket of wild rue [Epand in Persian or Dari]) who turns into a supporter of the little girl when she's overwhelmed by the aggressive, intrusive boys in the Taliban's Quranic school.
I'm not an expert on the more techy parts of the movie-making business, but as an avid movie-goer, I could not pinpoint any particular weakness in terms of camera-work, plot, etc. I tend to think that the complaints the movie receives on these aspects is a more-or-less direct result of a state of being spoiled by the glamorous Hollywood-driven movie industry.
The only real drawback to the movie was its subtitles. Eyal also noted in the above-mentioned feature review that the opening quote of the movie was obviously--and I think unnecessarily--altered in the caption. The real quote is by Ali Shariati, the celebrated idealogue of the Islamic Revolution in Iran--who died before he could see it happen--which says: "[Oh, God,] Put me among those who give away their worldly desires for their religious one, not those who give away their religious desires for their worldly ones." This is turned into a concise quote by Mandela instead: "I cannot forget, but I can forgive." Not the same thing at all, and I'm not really sure I would say implying the same thing either. The quote by Shariati is in fact very suggestive, and ambiguous in the context of the movie.
Finally, yes, the movie is grim, and hard to take, but far from dull or artificial. Overall, Osama is a big step into the real examination of the misery of a people who have been deprived even of a glimpse of a normal life by the almost cosmological forces of the international politics.
Another alleged weakness of the movie I wish to dispel is its slow pace. I hardly see why that could be regarded as a weakness when in all its seconds the movie is conveying so much (visual) emotion and from such a close shot. You get to see the real--as far as my experience goes--behaviour of the mullahs, the real mechanisms by which they take hold of the vortex of power in such a war-ridden land.
On a slightly different note, I was quite surprised to read the feature review on the first page of the movie info, Eyal Philippsborn write "was it the setting or did the Taliban also banned the building of houses with roofs?" well, was it the setting or the catastrophes of about 30 years of civil war and social chaos, Eyal?
Another expressed criticism I read in the previous reviews was that such deep and engulfing sense of misery cannot possibly be the truth. This is an attempt to reduce the level of the movie to some sort of intellectual propaganda. I have to completely disagree. For two reasons: first of all, in the limited time-span of a movie, one cannot possible hope to see all aspects of life. The director has to choose what s/he wants to show and convey, and quite understandably this movie is about the plagues brought upon an entire nation by the Taliban. And secondly, even though the movie mainly focuses on the miserable life of its characters in such surrealistic-to-the-western-eye settings, it does show tiny glimpses of the beauty of life: the lullaby that the grandma sings to put the little girl to sleep, or the joyful, threatening Espandi (the boy with the smoking bucket of wild rue [Epand in Persian or Dari]) who turns into a supporter of the little girl when she's overwhelmed by the aggressive, intrusive boys in the Taliban's Quranic school.
I'm not an expert on the more techy parts of the movie-making business, but as an avid movie-goer, I could not pinpoint any particular weakness in terms of camera-work, plot, etc. I tend to think that the complaints the movie receives on these aspects is a more-or-less direct result of a state of being spoiled by the glamorous Hollywood-driven movie industry.
The only real drawback to the movie was its subtitles. Eyal also noted in the above-mentioned feature review that the opening quote of the movie was obviously--and I think unnecessarily--altered in the caption. The real quote is by Ali Shariati, the celebrated idealogue of the Islamic Revolution in Iran--who died before he could see it happen--which says: "[Oh, God,] Put me among those who give away their worldly desires for their religious one, not those who give away their religious desires for their worldly ones." This is turned into a concise quote by Mandela instead: "I cannot forget, but I can forgive." Not the same thing at all, and I'm not really sure I would say implying the same thing either. The quote by Shariati is in fact very suggestive, and ambiguous in the context of the movie.
Finally, yes, the movie is grim, and hard to take, but far from dull or artificial. Overall, Osama is a big step into the real examination of the misery of a people who have been deprived even of a glimpse of a normal life by the almost cosmological forces of the international politics.
harrowing view of life under the Taliban
Buddy-5112 October 2004
I saw 'Osama' on the same weekend in which Afghanistan held its first-ever free elections. The contrast between that event and what we see in this film could not be more dramatic and striking.
This is the first film made in the country since the fall of the Taliban regime. It is a harrowing study of life under that brutal dictatorship as seen through the eyes of a terrified 12-year old girl. The Taliban considered being a woman as almost akin to sinning against God. As a result, women were not allowed to hold jobs, appear in public without male escorts, or show their face or any other part of their body when venturing outdoors. 'Osama' focuses specifically on the plight of war widows who were virtually forced into starvation as a result of these draconian rules. The film tells the tale of a young girl whose mother loses her job at a local hospital. To provide food for the table, the mother and the girl's grandmother devise an extremely dangerous plan to pass the youngster off as a boy, thereby allowing her to work as an assistant to a sympathetic shop owner. Even though the penalty is death if she is caught, the young girl reluctantly accedes to the plot. When she is rounded up with the other local boys to begin a program of religious indoctrination and military training, she must expend a great deal of effort to prevent her ruse from being uncovered.
'Osama' is a short film, and it doesn't intend to do anything more than offer a very small glimpse into what life was like under this tyrannical regime. In that respect, the film provides an invaluable service to those of us in the West who find it hard to believe that such mind-numbing ignorance and cruelty can still exist in our modern world. We see it, of course, every night on the news, but until an artist can translate it into recognizable human terms, the reality often doesn't hit us in the way that it should. 'Osama' really brings it home to us. Through our experience with these characters, we come to understand how unutterably hopeless and miserable life can be for people trapped in a culture defined by a pre-scientific mindset of irrational bigotry and superstition. The girl, who is dubbed by one of the other characters 'Osama,' is no plucky little heroine who takes on the Bad Guys, indifferent to the dangers she is facing.
She is a passive victim living a life of paralyzing fear, a perfect symbol for all the other women of her country who were consigned to a similar fate.
Writer/director Siddiq Barmak has employed non-professional actors to bring the tale to life. All of them do a remarkable job, especially young Marina Golbahari, who captures the wide-eyed terror of her character with vivid exactness. Golbahari becomes such an empathetic figure that her plight is understandable to any person from any culture.
'Osama' is like one of the early works from the school of post-war Italian neo-realism: small, unadorned and devastating in its simplicity and humanity.
This is the first film made in the country since the fall of the Taliban regime. It is a harrowing study of life under that brutal dictatorship as seen through the eyes of a terrified 12-year old girl. The Taliban considered being a woman as almost akin to sinning against God. As a result, women were not allowed to hold jobs, appear in public without male escorts, or show their face or any other part of their body when venturing outdoors. 'Osama' focuses specifically on the plight of war widows who were virtually forced into starvation as a result of these draconian rules. The film tells the tale of a young girl whose mother loses her job at a local hospital. To provide food for the table, the mother and the girl's grandmother devise an extremely dangerous plan to pass the youngster off as a boy, thereby allowing her to work as an assistant to a sympathetic shop owner. Even though the penalty is death if she is caught, the young girl reluctantly accedes to the plot. When she is rounded up with the other local boys to begin a program of religious indoctrination and military training, she must expend a great deal of effort to prevent her ruse from being uncovered.
'Osama' is a short film, and it doesn't intend to do anything more than offer a very small glimpse into what life was like under this tyrannical regime. In that respect, the film provides an invaluable service to those of us in the West who find it hard to believe that such mind-numbing ignorance and cruelty can still exist in our modern world. We see it, of course, every night on the news, but until an artist can translate it into recognizable human terms, the reality often doesn't hit us in the way that it should. 'Osama' really brings it home to us. Through our experience with these characters, we come to understand how unutterably hopeless and miserable life can be for people trapped in a culture defined by a pre-scientific mindset of irrational bigotry and superstition. The girl, who is dubbed by one of the other characters 'Osama,' is no plucky little heroine who takes on the Bad Guys, indifferent to the dangers she is facing.
She is a passive victim living a life of paralyzing fear, a perfect symbol for all the other women of her country who were consigned to a similar fate.
Writer/director Siddiq Barmak has employed non-professional actors to bring the tale to life. All of them do a remarkable job, especially young Marina Golbahari, who captures the wide-eyed terror of her character with vivid exactness. Golbahari becomes such an empathetic figure that her plight is understandable to any person from any culture.
'Osama' is like one of the early works from the school of post-war Italian neo-realism: small, unadorned and devastating in its simplicity and humanity.
Can life be worse?
vjkn26 December 2004
The Director is taking through us a 80 minutes journey through the eyes of a 13 year old girl in Afghanistan under the taliban...
The landscape full of limestone .....and the people unfortunate enough to have born into the wrong time....
barren land and lives.....
where every other woman is a widow and every other mother is a living tomb.......
Please listen to the soundtrack carefully.... especially the background score.... its really important..... it starts off with an iron swing..... ends with the sound of skipping rope hitting the ground.... Masterful.
I bet that after the movie, you will go and kiss your young daughter. You sure will.
My salute to the director who mesmerised me the whole 80 minutes....
saw this movie in 8th international film festival of kerala in 2003 where It got a grand applause.
This was the first movie made in post taliban regime in afghanistan. Truly commendable.
My 9 out of 10.
The landscape full of limestone .....and the people unfortunate enough to have born into the wrong time....
barren land and lives.....
where every other woman is a widow and every other mother is a living tomb.......
Please listen to the soundtrack carefully.... especially the background score.... its really important..... it starts off with an iron swing..... ends with the sound of skipping rope hitting the ground.... Masterful.
I bet that after the movie, you will go and kiss your young daughter. You sure will.
My salute to the director who mesmerised me the whole 80 minutes....
saw this movie in 8th international film festival of kerala in 2003 where It got a grand applause.
This was the first movie made in post taliban regime in afghanistan. Truly commendable.
My 9 out of 10.
Osama
jboothmillard28 November 2015
Warning: Spoilers
When I saw the title of this film made in Afghanistan, listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I assumed it was a film about Osama bin Laden, the title has only an allegorical relevance, I was going to watch it whatever. Basically Afghanistan is ruled by the Taliban, the Islamic fundamentalist political movement regime is repressive, especially for women who are not allowed to work, among other things. One family consisting solely of three women of three successive generations find this situation especially difficult, various Afghani wars have killed all males of their family. The Mother (Zubaida Sahar) had been working in a hospital as nurse, before the Taliban cut off hospital funding, regardless of her not being allowed to work. The Mother and Grandmother (Hamida Refah) make a decision, the only way they feel they can to survive: they have twelve-year-old daughter (Marina Golbahari) disguise herself as a boy, so that she can get a job and support the family. The daughter feels powerless and agrees to masquerade as a boy,but she is scared the Taliban will discover her and is certain they will kill her. The daughter cuts her hair and plants a lock of it in a pot, partly as a symbolic measure, so that her lost femininity can flourish. The only people outside the family who know about the ploy are the milk vendor, who was a friend of her deceased father, who employs the daughter, and a local boy named Espandi (Mohammad Arif Herati) who despite her outward appearance changing recognises her, Espandi gives her the name Osama. The daughter finds the masquerade becoming more difficult to pull off when the Taliban are recruiting all the local boys to the strict Koranic school, military training eduction is included. Also starring Mohammad Nadir Khwaja as Mullah and Gul Rehman Ghorbandi as Moazin / Talib. Untrained Golbahari gives a great performance as the pre-teen girl going undercover as a boy to make much needed money for the family during chauvinist tyranny, this was the first film to be made post-Taliban Afghanistan, it uses neorealism with the themes of uncomprehending trust and innocent courage to moving effect, the political element does not overshadow the well thought out story, it is a worthwhile drama. It won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. Good!
Spectacular
claudio_carvalho7 June 2005
In Afghanistan, during the Taliban regime, women are forbidden to work and to walk on the streets without the company of a male. The teenager girl Osama (Marina Golbahari) cuts her hair and dresses like a boy to get a job and support her widow mother and grandmother. There is no men in her family, since her father and her brother were killed in previous Afghan wars, and the family has no means of survival. When Osama, disguised as a boy, is called by the Taliban to join the school and military training, the boy Espandi (Arif Herati) tries to help her.
"Osama" is a spectacular film, based on true events, and the interpretation of the amateurish cast is so perfect that sometimes the movie looks like a documentary. It is amazing how different from Western cultures is the life, religion, streets, houses of the Afghan people, and how repressed the women are in this evil system. Although being aware of many atrocities of this fanatical power, through articles in newspapers and magazines, this movie is so real and impressive that makes the viewer feel in the skin the difficulties of the life of this poor people. This is the first film made in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban. In accordance with the interview of the director Siddiq Barmak in the Extras of the DVD, Marina Golbahari was accidentally discovered four days before the beginning of the shootings. The girls had never watched a movie in a theater, and did not have a TV. Two days before the beginning of the shootings, Barmak met Arif Herati, and decided to create a special character for him, not foreseen in the original screenplay. The boy requested the director to buy his dogs to accept the invitation. This movie was awarded many international prizes, among them the Golden Globe (Best Movie),Golden Camera (Cannes Festival) and Best Movie (London Festival), and certainly deserves to be among the IMDb Top 250. My vote is ten.
Title (Brazil): "Osama"
"Osama" is a spectacular film, based on true events, and the interpretation of the amateurish cast is so perfect that sometimes the movie looks like a documentary. It is amazing how different from Western cultures is the life, religion, streets, houses of the Afghan people, and how repressed the women are in this evil system. Although being aware of many atrocities of this fanatical power, through articles in newspapers and magazines, this movie is so real and impressive that makes the viewer feel in the skin the difficulties of the life of this poor people. This is the first film made in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban. In accordance with the interview of the director Siddiq Barmak in the Extras of the DVD, Marina Golbahari was accidentally discovered four days before the beginning of the shootings. The girls had never watched a movie in a theater, and did not have a TV. Two days before the beginning of the shootings, Barmak met Arif Herati, and decided to create a special character for him, not foreseen in the original screenplay. The boy requested the director to buy his dogs to accept the invitation. This movie was awarded many international prizes, among them the Golden Globe (Best Movie),Golden Camera (Cannes Festival) and Best Movie (London Festival), and certainly deserves to be among the IMDb Top 250. My vote is ten.
Title (Brazil): "Osama"
Beautiful film about a terrifying society
nerednos-117 April 2004
A simple and sad story told in a beautiful picture, but what makes the film really interesting is the context of it, the dramatic reality of a reli-fascistic society in which women mean nothing that is outlined to us. A reality that fortunately doesn't exist anymore in the same way in Afghanistan, but in various forms is still practiced in a number of countries. The actors are all non-profi's and they play wonderful. The only optimistic thing you can say about the film is that the girl playing the leading part (who was a beggar) could buy a simple house for her and her family after having played in the film.
The other kind of terrorism
Anonymous_Maxine30 November 2004
In a time when the world is so focused on the conflict unfolding in Iraq, the thing that is most clear to me after watching this movie is the old saying that after thousands of years of wars fought in the name of religion, we are not a second closer to peace than we ever were. Osama looks at one of the many religious struggles in the world by focusing on the plight of women under the iron fist of the Taliban, one of the sickest and most debase groups on earth.
The story focuses on a young girl living in an all female family, and since they live in an area ruled by the Taliban, they are not allowed to leave the house, because women walking around unaccompanied by a male are promptly arrested and subjected to inhuman punishments. With no way to feed themselves, since women are not even allowed to leave the house, much less work, their only choice is to dress up their youngest member of the family as a boy and have her go out and find work to feed everyone else.
The most important thing that the film does is that it calls attention to the atrocities that are being committed by religious groups beyond hijacking planes or planting roadside bombs or kidnapping and beheading people. In addition to all of those horrible atrocities, there are women in Afghanistan that are literally treated not just like property, but like animals.
At one point in the movie, one character, a woman, wishes that God had never created women. The fact that she wishes that God had never created women, rather than wishing something a little more logical, like that God had never created the Taliban, serves to bring into sharp focus the extent to which the Taliban have perverted these women's minds.
The film opens with a surreal scene of a large group of women in ghostly blue burkhas in a demonstration in which they chant their desire for the right to work, for some reason seeming to have forgotten that they do not even have the right to assemble. The local Taliban, however, remembers this little detail very clearly, and starts by hosing the women down with high-pressure hoses before opening fire on them. That such madness is committed in the name of some god is an illustration of how humans can take the concept of religion and twist it so horribly wrong that they can justify doing whatever on earth they feel like.
The movie is a study not only of the atrocious practices that are carried out against women by the Taliban, but also an illustration of the elasticity of the concept of religion. Especially in America, we have this conception of religion as this benevolent force that transcends the suffering that we endure on earth and promises justification through a higher medium. Osama shows us that it is the very concept of religion that is used in some practices to justify that suffering for which we look above for reasoning and comfort.
The Taliban have succeeded in amassing all of the worst possible appropriations associated with religion, turning it from a benevolent force and into a tool with which to justify their massive destruction of human rights, which are not an American concept but a religious one.
Aristotle once said, 'I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God that has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use.'
Similarly, I personally do not feel obliged to believe that any God in existence, presiding over any religious sect, could possibly approve of the wholesale torture, abuse, and destruction of women, a divine creation if there is a single one on earth.
The story focuses on a young girl living in an all female family, and since they live in an area ruled by the Taliban, they are not allowed to leave the house, because women walking around unaccompanied by a male are promptly arrested and subjected to inhuman punishments. With no way to feed themselves, since women are not even allowed to leave the house, much less work, their only choice is to dress up their youngest member of the family as a boy and have her go out and find work to feed everyone else.
The most important thing that the film does is that it calls attention to the atrocities that are being committed by religious groups beyond hijacking planes or planting roadside bombs or kidnapping and beheading people. In addition to all of those horrible atrocities, there are women in Afghanistan that are literally treated not just like property, but like animals.
At one point in the movie, one character, a woman, wishes that God had never created women. The fact that she wishes that God had never created women, rather than wishing something a little more logical, like that God had never created the Taliban, serves to bring into sharp focus the extent to which the Taliban have perverted these women's minds.
The film opens with a surreal scene of a large group of women in ghostly blue burkhas in a demonstration in which they chant their desire for the right to work, for some reason seeming to have forgotten that they do not even have the right to assemble. The local Taliban, however, remembers this little detail very clearly, and starts by hosing the women down with high-pressure hoses before opening fire on them. That such madness is committed in the name of some god is an illustration of how humans can take the concept of religion and twist it so horribly wrong that they can justify doing whatever on earth they feel like.
The movie is a study not only of the atrocious practices that are carried out against women by the Taliban, but also an illustration of the elasticity of the concept of religion. Especially in America, we have this conception of religion as this benevolent force that transcends the suffering that we endure on earth and promises justification through a higher medium. Osama shows us that it is the very concept of religion that is used in some practices to justify that suffering for which we look above for reasoning and comfort.
The Taliban have succeeded in amassing all of the worst possible appropriations associated with religion, turning it from a benevolent force and into a tool with which to justify their massive destruction of human rights, which are not an American concept but a religious one.
Aristotle once said, 'I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God that has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use.'
Similarly, I personally do not feel obliged to believe that any God in existence, presiding over any religious sect, could possibly approve of the wholesale torture, abuse, and destruction of women, a divine creation if there is a single one on earth.
A Short but powerful film!
Scorching28 June 2004
Osama is the first movie made after the fall of the Taliban last year. It shows the story of a young girl who is forced to disguise herself as a boy so that she can work and feed her hungry mother and grandmother. Winner a Golden Globe for foreign language film is about 80 minutes long.
I have got to say that this film will really give a massive shock to the viewers with some of the scenes. The severity of some of the actions and policies of the Taliban were really extreme and it sometimes is hard to understand how people could do this to other people.
One of the first scenes you see in the film is that of a rally of women all asking for jobs so that they could feed their families. It is a breathtaking and powerful scene as you see hundreds of women all clad in their blue burkas. This I felt was one of the ways the director was able to portray the harshness of the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan. You could see the peoples hardship and longing for a better life.
I was rather pleasantly surprised to hear that all of the actors in the film are all locals of Afghanistan and do not have any experience in acting. They all did great jobs in putting across the material especially Marina Golbahari, the lead actress. I guess it was easy translating real life experiences to the scenes in a film.
The director also did quite a laudable job of making a rather bleak atmosphere throughout the film. A lot of the scenes had dark lighting and not a single second of musical score throughout the film added to the overall dark atmosphere of the film. He also did a good job in making the Taliban a menacing force, which you would learn to hate.
A good film overall and it was really effective in putting the message across even if the movie was just 80 minutes long. 80 minutes of powerful filmaking and its simplicity is the main reason that this film is a good one.
I have got to say that this film will really give a massive shock to the viewers with some of the scenes. The severity of some of the actions and policies of the Taliban were really extreme and it sometimes is hard to understand how people could do this to other people.
One of the first scenes you see in the film is that of a rally of women all asking for jobs so that they could feed their families. It is a breathtaking and powerful scene as you see hundreds of women all clad in their blue burkas. This I felt was one of the ways the director was able to portray the harshness of the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan. You could see the peoples hardship and longing for a better life.
I was rather pleasantly surprised to hear that all of the actors in the film are all locals of Afghanistan and do not have any experience in acting. They all did great jobs in putting across the material especially Marina Golbahari, the lead actress. I guess it was easy translating real life experiences to the scenes in a film.
The director also did quite a laudable job of making a rather bleak atmosphere throughout the film. A lot of the scenes had dark lighting and not a single second of musical score throughout the film added to the overall dark atmosphere of the film. He also did a good job in making the Taliban a menacing force, which you would learn to hate.
A good film overall and it was really effective in putting the message across even if the movie was just 80 minutes long. 80 minutes of powerful filmaking and its simplicity is the main reason that this film is a good one.
Sad,but real
Lady_Targaryen11 November 2005
Warning: Spoilers
'Osama'is a sad story about a 12 years old girl who lives in Afganistan, under the Taliban rules. One of those rules,is not allow any woman to work and even go out of the house without the presence of a man;since there aren't men in Osama's family, she needs to pretend that she is a boy,to bring some food to her family. Espandi, a boy who works at the streets, knows that Osama is a girl, and helps her as he can, teaching and explaining her how to do some male stuff, and he even fights with the other boys, who doubt that Osama is not a man.
The worst thing about the violence and the other sad facts of this movie, is that they are the reality of the Afganistan. The repression of the women, the poverty, the young boys being trained for war, the younger girls forced to marry someone they don't want to...they still happens in XXI century.
I think this movie is great and very worth seeing, specially to see how was the reality in the Taliban times.
The worst thing about the violence and the other sad facts of this movie, is that they are the reality of the Afganistan. The repression of the women, the poverty, the young boys being trained for war, the younger girls forced to marry someone they don't want to...they still happens in XXI century.
I think this movie is great and very worth seeing, specially to see how was the reality in the Taliban times.
unrelenting and unforgiving
SnoopyStyle13 December 2014
The Taliban is ruthlessly ruling Afghanistan and repressive especially for women who are demonstrating for work. Osama, her mother and her grandmother are without a male in their family. The hospital is closing and the mother is without work. Doctors and nurses are arrested. She doesn't get any of the pay she's owed. The only option left is to disguise Osama as a boy.
This is an unforgiving portrait of life under the Taliban. It is probably as close as any modern thinking person wish to be. It is a place without hope. It's the gritty realism of Afghanistan that makes this so compelling. It is an unrelenting film about oppression.
This is an unforgiving portrait of life under the Taliban. It is probably as close as any modern thinking person wish to be. It is a place without hope. It's the gritty realism of Afghanistan that makes this so compelling. It is an unrelenting film about oppression.
Why waste 80 minutes to admit you actually have nothing to say?
haden4230 January 2007
I cannot help but wonder why's this considered a good movie? I also wonder, did Siddiq Barmak at that time even know what a real movie is supposed to be?
Let's not get sidetracked into the "true story" aspect, please. Yes, the situation there was outrageous, all those destroyed lives due to religious fanaticism etc. Living in the enlightened Europe during the Internet age, I already knew all this, so while touching, I cannot say the images truly surprised or shocked me.
Thus, while waiting for the story to crawl along, I couldn't help but be annoyed by the obvious flaws. Bland plot (to the point of non-existence), no interesting characters (except for Espandi, who at least managed to look alive during his screen time), poor pacing and uninspired scenery - they all point in a single direction. Writer, director and editor Siddiq Barmak just didn't have anything personal to say. And thus stands my question: why waste 80 minutes, if the story could as well be told in five?
Let's not get sidetracked into the "true story" aspect, please. Yes, the situation there was outrageous, all those destroyed lives due to religious fanaticism etc. Living in the enlightened Europe during the Internet age, I already knew all this, so while touching, I cannot say the images truly surprised or shocked me.
Thus, while waiting for the story to crawl along, I couldn't help but be annoyed by the obvious flaws. Bland plot (to the point of non-existence), no interesting characters (except for Espandi, who at least managed to look alive during his screen time), poor pacing and uninspired scenery - they all point in a single direction. Writer, director and editor Siddiq Barmak just didn't have anything personal to say. And thus stands my question: why waste 80 minutes, if the story could as well be told in five?
Outstanding
jpintar25 May 2004
If this film does not make you angry, then you have no feelings whatsoever. This is the first film made in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban. It shows the oppressive life of women under the Taliban. They are not allowed to go to school, hold jobs, or be allowed in public without a male escort. This movie tells the story of a girl who must disguise herself as a boy in order to get a job so her family can buy food. If she is caught, she would most likely be put to death for breaking the law. It is amazing that such things still exist in today's world. This movie is a warning that there must be no more regimes such as the Taliban in Afghanistan. I hope this film will prompt people around the world to demand that women have basic rights such as the right to vote, to go out in public, and to dress however they please no matter what country they live in.
A wonderful and disturbing film about a regime that scarred an entire nation
eyal philippsborn15 March 2004
I'll spare you the tedious task of reading this slightly long review and say outright that this film is great but very hard to watch and requires one of those special moods where one wants to see a film and is reluctant to watch some standard multi personality disorder thriller or a romantic comedy that more and more lately, seem mutually exclusive (How to lose a guy in 10 days, Love actually and the list goes on and on).
Osama, a name that strikes fear in almost every person, is a bogus name of a young girl who lives with her widowed mother and grandmother. The fact that neither women can't go to work under the strict rules of the Taliban, forces the mother to cut her daughter's hair short and send her to work as a boy. Soon enough, the disguised girl is recruited to a religious, Taliban oriented, all male school where she faces the task of fitting in, a task which is partially aided by Esphandi, a beggar teen who knows Osama's secret and goes a great length to hide it, knowing full well that if revealed, both his and her life will be in jeopardy.
According to the IMDB's Biography of Marina Golbahar (who portrays Osama) the struggle for survival is hardly new to her which is probably why she plays in such a credible and moving manner despite having no acting experience. The acting is the cornerstone of the film and it is the main contributor to the film's impact. Another major factor is the scenery, I will elaborate on that later on.
Without going into detail as to the plot's progress, I will note that the film doesn't try to embellish the harsh reality of Afghan women and especially their children who, according to the film, are doomed in most cases to be robbed of their childhood.
I added the "according to the film" reference because this film doesn't try to convey it's hatred to this regime and although I'm hardly a Taliban devotee, I am skeptic enough to know that film can depict anyone they want anyway they choose (just the other day there was a story on 60 minutes that showed how North Korean kids are brainwashed to believe that George W Bush is the 21st century's Hitler ) so one must approach this film under a very critical point of view.
But even so, there is little dispute that women's rights were trampled during the Taliban reign of oppression and that Afghanistan is a nation in plight in large part due to that regime (was it the setting or did the Taliban also banned the building of houses with roofs?).
The only reservation I have of the film is the fact that under the loathing of the Talibans, the director, Siddiq bermak, added scenes that weakens the usually high sense of genuineness of the film. For example, in a wedding party the women sing almost throughout the scene about men falling in the war against Russia in the late 80's. Not your regular spice-up-the-party tunes. I assume the director wanted to give us a little background about the characters and forgot that the key to the story's conviction is the appeal of Osama and not the appall of the Taliban (I used that word eight times in this review, I think I overdid it).
But other than that, the film is very powerful and although the real magnitude if the suffering in Afghanistan will never be known to its full extent, I still managed to feel empathy for the people I used to be completely indifferent to (I admit to my eternal shame).
8.5 out of 10 on FilmOmeter.
One more thing I'd like to address to is the quote in the beginning of the film. In the Hebrew subtitled version of the film, the quote was translated as "I may forgive but won't forget" by Nelson Mandela. In the film, however, the quote (in Arabic letters) refers to Doctor Shariati who was the ideologue of the Iranian cue (I didn't get the chance to read the actual quote because my Arabic is a little rusty). I guess there wasn't much point in explaining to a viewer like myself who Shariati was but nevertheless, its an evidence of the tiny alterations film go when they are branded for foreign viewing.
Osama, a name that strikes fear in almost every person, is a bogus name of a young girl who lives with her widowed mother and grandmother. The fact that neither women can't go to work under the strict rules of the Taliban, forces the mother to cut her daughter's hair short and send her to work as a boy. Soon enough, the disguised girl is recruited to a religious, Taliban oriented, all male school where she faces the task of fitting in, a task which is partially aided by Esphandi, a beggar teen who knows Osama's secret and goes a great length to hide it, knowing full well that if revealed, both his and her life will be in jeopardy.
According to the IMDB's Biography of Marina Golbahar (who portrays Osama) the struggle for survival is hardly new to her which is probably why she plays in such a credible and moving manner despite having no acting experience. The acting is the cornerstone of the film and it is the main contributor to the film's impact. Another major factor is the scenery, I will elaborate on that later on.
Without going into detail as to the plot's progress, I will note that the film doesn't try to embellish the harsh reality of Afghan women and especially their children who, according to the film, are doomed in most cases to be robbed of their childhood.
I added the "according to the film" reference because this film doesn't try to convey it's hatred to this regime and although I'm hardly a Taliban devotee, I am skeptic enough to know that film can depict anyone they want anyway they choose (just the other day there was a story on 60 minutes that showed how North Korean kids are brainwashed to believe that George W Bush is the 21st century's Hitler ) so one must approach this film under a very critical point of view.
But even so, there is little dispute that women's rights were trampled during the Taliban reign of oppression and that Afghanistan is a nation in plight in large part due to that regime (was it the setting or did the Taliban also banned the building of houses with roofs?).
The only reservation I have of the film is the fact that under the loathing of the Talibans, the director, Siddiq bermak, added scenes that weakens the usually high sense of genuineness of the film. For example, in a wedding party the women sing almost throughout the scene about men falling in the war against Russia in the late 80's. Not your regular spice-up-the-party tunes. I assume the director wanted to give us a little background about the characters and forgot that the key to the story's conviction is the appeal of Osama and not the appall of the Taliban (I used that word eight times in this review, I think I overdid it).
But other than that, the film is very powerful and although the real magnitude if the suffering in Afghanistan will never be known to its full extent, I still managed to feel empathy for the people I used to be completely indifferent to (I admit to my eternal shame).
8.5 out of 10 on FilmOmeter.
One more thing I'd like to address to is the quote in the beginning of the film. In the Hebrew subtitled version of the film, the quote was translated as "I may forgive but won't forget" by Nelson Mandela. In the film, however, the quote (in Arabic letters) refers to Doctor Shariati who was the ideologue of the Iranian cue (I didn't get the chance to read the actual quote because my Arabic is a little rusty). I guess there wasn't much point in explaining to a viewer like myself who Shariati was but nevertheless, its an evidence of the tiny alterations film go when they are branded for foreign viewing.
Some disturbing political thoughts about this fine film.
bankcello30 November 2004
There is no need for me to rehash the plot of this film. Many others have done that.
It is a harrowing experience. However, something occurred to me after seeing it. Given the inhuman treatment of women by the Taliban, why did it take the attacks of September 11 to finally have the US decide to remove the regime. Winston Churchill said that you could always count on the US to do the right thing, after it has done everything else.
That we (the US) should attack Iraq because our commander in chief didn't like them and they acted poorly towards his father, yet we refrained from doing anything about the Taliban until we were attacked, reflects very poorly upon us.
It is a harrowing experience. However, something occurred to me after seeing it. Given the inhuman treatment of women by the Taliban, why did it take the attacks of September 11 to finally have the US decide to remove the regime. Winston Churchill said that you could always count on the US to do the right thing, after it has done everything else.
That we (the US) should attack Iraq because our commander in chief didn't like them and they acted poorly towards his father, yet we refrained from doing anything about the Taliban until we were attacked, reflects very poorly upon us.
Could have been better, but worth definitely watching!
LiveLoveLead10 August 2013
Inspired by a true story, this movie shares some insight into the world of being a woman in Afghanistan, as ruled by the Taliban, and it is not a pretty picture. As a single/widowed woman it is nearly impossible to get by if you don't have a male in the family. The Taliban will not let the women work, so they can't make money to feed their family. The men go out and fight in the Afghani war and when they are killed, their family is left destitute. The women are left with nothing but fear, heartbreak, and hopelessness. Osama is the story a family, consisting of three generations of women, trying to survive this repressive country. In desperation, the grandmother and mother decide to disguise the preteen daughter as a boy, so "he" can get work to support the family. Renamed Osama, the girl is completely out of her element and petrified, just walking in the streets, let alone as all the boys are rounded up by the Taliban and forced into school and military training. There were many things to like about this foreign movie, but also things that bugged me. This was the first entirely Afghan film shot since the fall of the Taliban, and Biarmak (the director), used all amateurs, people taken off the streets of Kabul, to shoot this film...Therein lies some of the problems. Maybe it's a cultural thing, maybe poor acting or poor directing, but some of the film didn't feel right. When Osama was whining and making poor decisions, I didn't feel that it was realistic, for a girl who would certainly be killed, if her secret was discovered. I think common sense would have made her not use her high pitched voice & whine so much. Also, I read that the title of the movie and the ending was completely changed to an opposite outcome from the original. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, but the ending wasn't what I was hoping for. All in all this is a moving and insightful film and definitely worth watching, as long as you don't mind subtitles, a realistic but slow moving story, and an ending that isn't tied up in a neat little bow. 7.4 out of 10 stars In My Humble Opinion! 08/2013
Hard-hitting, never sentimental.
tao90226 July 2015
Set in Afghanistan after the Taliban has decreed that women should not be seen in public without a male chaperone.
A widowed woman, Espandi, loses her job as a doctor following the closure of her hospital. She disguises her 12-year old daughter as a boy, calling her Osama, and ventures out to find work and stop the family from starving. As Osama's disguise is gradually revealed we are shown the dangers and abuse that she encounters.
An uncompromising story of the harsh realities of life under the Taliban. Hard-hitting, never sentimental, superbly filmed and acted, particularly by the young cast.
A widowed woman, Espandi, loses her job as a doctor following the closure of her hospital. She disguises her 12-year old daughter as a boy, calling her Osama, and ventures out to find work and stop the family from starving. As Osama's disguise is gradually revealed we are shown the dangers and abuse that she encounters.
An uncompromising story of the harsh realities of life under the Taliban. Hard-hitting, never sentimental, superbly filmed and acted, particularly by the young cast.
The most perfect torture movie in history
chadrbailey-122 February 2005
Warning: Spoilers
This movie is torture, not just for the main character, but for the audience. It's also perfect in its portrayal of the eradication of hope, light, and everything good in life. Throughout, the viewer hangs on to the edge of hope, thinking that somehow, the courageous Osama will make it after all. But in the end, it becomes apparent that such hope is futile in a situation like that portrayed in the movie (a dystopia, not -- I pray -- a real picture of life anywhere in the world). This movie does an amazing job of conveying the utter brutality of life in a developing country where poverty, fundamentalism, and the struggle for survival dance around each other, only to entrap the residents in a web from which there is apparently no escape. I'm an optimist, but the movie showed me that optimism is easily folly. That being said, I do have faith that people everywhere are capable of more good than many of the characters in this movie.
The film, rather engaging and affecting in itself, paves the way for a generation of filmmakers and a film language that we may see more of in the future.
johnnyboyz23 May 2009
For the years the Taliban had a grip over the people of Afghanistan, for the years they ruled and reigned until it took a Western task force, predominantly in the shape of the Americans, to overthrow them following the aftermath of September the eleventh, 2001 - cinema was banned and so was the notion of film-making. It would be very easy to label the ruling group, that were the Taliban, cruel. But it would actually be easier to label them rather stupid in the sense they had this tool, that was cinema and film-making, and chose to shun it. Many dictators from many-a nation have used cinema throughout history, from Hitler to Stalin to Fransisco Franco in Spain half way through last century - Franco even set up an 'Of National Interest' tag for Spanish films that made his government and political ideas look good, and have used it to their advantage. The fact they had this tool, however primitive it may have been, and rejected its power and possibilities for political manipulation and falsifying glorification is incredible.
Here is the reaction to the overthrow: a film named 'Osama'. One that actually looks at life under the Taliban and documents it as accurately as we can only assume; from its rules and regulations to do with women, to its glimpses inside a Taliban training camp. What the Taliban shunned for those half a dozen years or so, refusing to use as a means of propaganda to promote their image comes back and bites them in 80 minutes of sheer documentation of their own rule. This is the payback, you might say. If I am brutally honest, I wanted to like Osama a lot more than I did but that is not to say I wouldn't recommend it. The film is exactly that: a documentation of what went on in a certain nation, at a certain time. The film does not shock as much as it does educate, which is still perfectly fine; the film does not demonise as much as it does document, which is equally fine but the film does not engage us with a greater variety of individuals as much as it does with one little girl, forced into cross-dressing to save her and her mother's life.
Don't get me wrong, I liked Osama but when the 'evils' and wrong-doing the Taliban incurred on the people of Afghanistan have to be put across orally, through a series of wails and sobs of times gone by, you sort of feel a pinch linked to wanting to see a dramatisation of these events and a chance to really get a feel for what these people went through. I think Afghanistan, with the still relatively immediate post-Taliban set-up they've got, have a stunning film inside of them somewhere. With the now supposedly reformed nation that is Afghanistan, I can see their troubles under the Taliban told amongst a horrific, truly unnerving, sprawling canvas of cinema that incorporates the visual style plus disturbance of something like Children of Men combined with the heart-tugging substance of something like Hotel Rwanda or 2006 Malian film 'Bamako', both films that never exploited true-to-life events, but instead got across a sense of feeling, hurt and desperation as scenarios built to a hilt that would shape the lives of a group of everyday people.
Instead, and to the film's credit after all, we have the wandering, searching approach given to us – the unconnected and random structure that sees its protagonist wander through their surroundings, slightly lost and without direction as they are thrust into a situation (forced to dress as a man) on top of an already desperate situation (life under the regime). The film is a collection of events strung together more than it is a story of actually living under the rule and despite starting out with the idea that this woman must rely on her young girl dressed a boy to bring home earnings to live, the film abandons this premise and relies on the girl venturing forth and getting into situations that will endanger her due to her secret.
You cannot deny the spirit or sense of the Taliban remains. This is Afghanistan's first film shot entirely in their nation post-regime and it just so happens to share its name with that of the regime's former (or still current?) leader: Osama. Marina Golbahari plays the titular character of Osama and does more acting in this 83 minutes than some supporting talents might do in entire trilogies of blockbusters. She is sent out to work at a tea shop because there are no other men in her mother's life and a woman cannot legally leave her place of dwelling without a male escorting her. This set up is abandoned when many boys are snatched up from homes and workplaces in order to be trained by the Taliban for combat.
Granted, within the passage of bits and pieces the film has its fair share of dramatic moments that make for great drama. There is an incident within an all-male wash room that is obviously going to be a little awkward as well as a scene in which once in the camp, many of the other boys point out the young girl, randomly assigned the name Osama I might add, for teasing and unwanted attention. What I wanted out of Osama was a more-visceral, more terrifying account of life under Taliban rule. What I got was a documentation of the nation's prior difficulties; forever embedded within the film from the opening shot that clearly echoes a documentary as a camera-man is attacked. For what it is, Osama is engaging and affecting in places, but do not be surprised if an Afghan filmmaker fabricates something more affecting and more brilliant in the future.
Here is the reaction to the overthrow: a film named 'Osama'. One that actually looks at life under the Taliban and documents it as accurately as we can only assume; from its rules and regulations to do with women, to its glimpses inside a Taliban training camp. What the Taliban shunned for those half a dozen years or so, refusing to use as a means of propaganda to promote their image comes back and bites them in 80 minutes of sheer documentation of their own rule. This is the payback, you might say. If I am brutally honest, I wanted to like Osama a lot more than I did but that is not to say I wouldn't recommend it. The film is exactly that: a documentation of what went on in a certain nation, at a certain time. The film does not shock as much as it does educate, which is still perfectly fine; the film does not demonise as much as it does document, which is equally fine but the film does not engage us with a greater variety of individuals as much as it does with one little girl, forced into cross-dressing to save her and her mother's life.
Don't get me wrong, I liked Osama but when the 'evils' and wrong-doing the Taliban incurred on the people of Afghanistan have to be put across orally, through a series of wails and sobs of times gone by, you sort of feel a pinch linked to wanting to see a dramatisation of these events and a chance to really get a feel for what these people went through. I think Afghanistan, with the still relatively immediate post-Taliban set-up they've got, have a stunning film inside of them somewhere. With the now supposedly reformed nation that is Afghanistan, I can see their troubles under the Taliban told amongst a horrific, truly unnerving, sprawling canvas of cinema that incorporates the visual style plus disturbance of something like Children of Men combined with the heart-tugging substance of something like Hotel Rwanda or 2006 Malian film 'Bamako', both films that never exploited true-to-life events, but instead got across a sense of feeling, hurt and desperation as scenarios built to a hilt that would shape the lives of a group of everyday people.
Instead, and to the film's credit after all, we have the wandering, searching approach given to us – the unconnected and random structure that sees its protagonist wander through their surroundings, slightly lost and without direction as they are thrust into a situation (forced to dress as a man) on top of an already desperate situation (life under the regime). The film is a collection of events strung together more than it is a story of actually living under the rule and despite starting out with the idea that this woman must rely on her young girl dressed a boy to bring home earnings to live, the film abandons this premise and relies on the girl venturing forth and getting into situations that will endanger her due to her secret.
You cannot deny the spirit or sense of the Taliban remains. This is Afghanistan's first film shot entirely in their nation post-regime and it just so happens to share its name with that of the regime's former (or still current?) leader: Osama. Marina Golbahari plays the titular character of Osama and does more acting in this 83 minutes than some supporting talents might do in entire trilogies of blockbusters. She is sent out to work at a tea shop because there are no other men in her mother's life and a woman cannot legally leave her place of dwelling without a male escorting her. This set up is abandoned when many boys are snatched up from homes and workplaces in order to be trained by the Taliban for combat.
Granted, within the passage of bits and pieces the film has its fair share of dramatic moments that make for great drama. There is an incident within an all-male wash room that is obviously going to be a little awkward as well as a scene in which once in the camp, many of the other boys point out the young girl, randomly assigned the name Osama I might add, for teasing and unwanted attention. What I wanted out of Osama was a more-visceral, more terrifying account of life under Taliban rule. What I got was a documentation of the nation's prior difficulties; forever embedded within the film from the opening shot that clearly echoes a documentary as a camera-man is attacked. For what it is, Osama is engaging and affecting in places, but do not be surprised if an Afghan filmmaker fabricates something more affecting and more brilliant in the future.
A realistic film through the eyes of an afghan girl
jo_oantoni016 July 2017
Warning: Spoilers
The movie brings out how's like to be a young woman in Afghanistan when their world is completely dominated by Taliban rules. The main message adresses implicitly gender rules and woman rights to work surrounded by a state of violence, misogyny and intolerance through a micro situation and an innocent point of view. This is a very interesting aspect that you realize by watching a foreign movie, when you can understand other lives and see that there are different places, people with their own social dilemmas, way bigger than our ubiquitous drama, and all that is often ignored comes out of the dark, veering your thoughts to the direction of comprehending society, values and singularities when it comes to dominance and subjectivity control. Adding to that, its brilliant ending holds the attention to the unexpected, whether it is going to be a happy or a devastating outcome to the main character, and then, as it was surprisingly obvious, you get a real end. This is an amazing movie from a country that I didn't expect to produce such an intense piece of work, and that allowed me to think about many aspects outside my bubble.
A Little Simplistic In Delivery, But Painfully Compelling And Important
Muldwych17 April 2010
'Osama' attempts to give a snapshot of life in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime, focussing chiefly upon a young girl forced to disguise herself as a boy in order to put food on the table for her family, of whom all the male members have been killed. Women were forbidden to work under Taliban law, and the film makes clear the terror and hopelessness of a war-torn world held under an oppressive medieval, religious doctrine. Billed as the first Afghan film following the overthrow of the Taliban, it is perhaps inevitable that they should be the subject. For the most part, I was entirely drawn into the bleak and unjust landscape of 'Osama', although the film is not without some faults, with some key elements not adequately explored and an ending that for me did not entirely work.
Filmed on location in Kabul, 'Osama' needs do little to show the horrors of war - the evidence is all around and the locals so used to it that many have never known anything different. The complete undermining of Afghan civilisation by the Taliban is omnipresent in every scene where they are not in frame. They are introduced in the film often out of shot, highlighting the facelessness with which they are viewed. To an extent, it is a shame that their motives and background are never explored in any depth, sometimes reducing them to the level of fanatical religious boogeymen - propaganda-like in its execution, which has the unfortunate result of oversimplifying the film's discourse. This is not a question of sympathy, but of avoiding demonisation and the same level of ignorance practiced by the overlords under scrutiny. Unless of course Barmak was suggesting that the Taliban's two-dimensional nature is the sum-total of their being, which I don't think was the case.
Yet this does not undermine the film's central aim: to portray the total subjugation of women, leading to a life of oppression, poverty and destitution, wherein there is no chance of escape. Central to this is the young girl herself, who at no time convinces in her attempts to hide her identity, making the conclusion to her storyline inevitable. It's entirely believable that this practice would have been perpetuated by a desperate people in a world where only men have any authority whatsoever, yet since the producers are keen to make it clear that women are the the greatest victims of Taliban rule, any such attempt is utterly impossible. The absolute terror and misery conveyed by Marina Golhabari as Osama is powerful and convincing, yet horrifying precisely because it is so. Obtaining his cast from the general public, director Siddiq Barmak has something of a mixed bag, with some performers unable to match their contemporaries, yet Golhabari is clearly not acting a lot of the time so much as reliving.
The ending took me back to the sheer hopelessness summed up in the climax to Joan Chen's 'Xiu Xiu', depicting the forced relocation of youths during the Chinese Cultural revolution. Yet in 'Osama', I found the film's closing to be somewhat abrupt and lacking. Apparently, Barmak did have an alternate ending in mind that he later felt would undermine the story's theme. On the one hand, it could be argued that ongoing misery has no ending, yet it doesn't change my feeling that the credits rolled too soon. This is ironic really, as I felt the film's overall length was more than enough to get its message across, and ironic further still, considering that for the central characters, there is no ending to their suffering. Or it may be that I simply didn't want to accept the final scene as an ending.
However, 'Osama' does not fail to convey its message, not to mention at least some of the horrors suffered by the story's victims, for I don't think anyone on this side of the screen could ever truly understand unless they had seen it for themselves. Storywise, I felt it needed further development of certain elements and more thought into some of the editing, but its central aim to invoke feelings of disgust and despair at the destruction of lives in the aim of ignorance and fanaticism is firmly intact.
Filmed on location in Kabul, 'Osama' needs do little to show the horrors of war - the evidence is all around and the locals so used to it that many have never known anything different. The complete undermining of Afghan civilisation by the Taliban is omnipresent in every scene where they are not in frame. They are introduced in the film often out of shot, highlighting the facelessness with which they are viewed. To an extent, it is a shame that their motives and background are never explored in any depth, sometimes reducing them to the level of fanatical religious boogeymen - propaganda-like in its execution, which has the unfortunate result of oversimplifying the film's discourse. This is not a question of sympathy, but of avoiding demonisation and the same level of ignorance practiced by the overlords under scrutiny. Unless of course Barmak was suggesting that the Taliban's two-dimensional nature is the sum-total of their being, which I don't think was the case.
Yet this does not undermine the film's central aim: to portray the total subjugation of women, leading to a life of oppression, poverty and destitution, wherein there is no chance of escape. Central to this is the young girl herself, who at no time convinces in her attempts to hide her identity, making the conclusion to her storyline inevitable. It's entirely believable that this practice would have been perpetuated by a desperate people in a world where only men have any authority whatsoever, yet since the producers are keen to make it clear that women are the the greatest victims of Taliban rule, any such attempt is utterly impossible. The absolute terror and misery conveyed by Marina Golhabari as Osama is powerful and convincing, yet horrifying precisely because it is so. Obtaining his cast from the general public, director Siddiq Barmak has something of a mixed bag, with some performers unable to match their contemporaries, yet Golhabari is clearly not acting a lot of the time so much as reliving.
The ending took me back to the sheer hopelessness summed up in the climax to Joan Chen's 'Xiu Xiu', depicting the forced relocation of youths during the Chinese Cultural revolution. Yet in 'Osama', I found the film's closing to be somewhat abrupt and lacking. Apparently, Barmak did have an alternate ending in mind that he later felt would undermine the story's theme. On the one hand, it could be argued that ongoing misery has no ending, yet it doesn't change my feeling that the credits rolled too soon. This is ironic really, as I felt the film's overall length was more than enough to get its message across, and ironic further still, considering that for the central characters, there is no ending to their suffering. Or it may be that I simply didn't want to accept the final scene as an ending.
However, 'Osama' does not fail to convey its message, not to mention at least some of the horrors suffered by the story's victims, for I don't think anyone on this side of the screen could ever truly understand unless they had seen it for themselves. Storywise, I felt it needed further development of certain elements and more thought into some of the editing, but its central aim to invoke feelings of disgust and despair at the destruction of lives in the aim of ignorance and fanaticism is firmly intact.
not what i expected
lizzyhollywood30 December 2015
Cruel reality, boring movie. Watched this because of 1001 movies list. Disturbing - yes, but that doesn't make a good movie. Simple plot, lots of crying, no fight for yourself or your family, just giving up. Distressed child in a disguise who doesn't understand what is expected from her and just wants to play. Predictable and annoying, as i said lots of crying and nagging, about a girl who worries too much about her hair. Other people try to help her, but she just doesn't give a ****, she doesn't even try and you see nothing, just sobby complains. Why did this one won golden globe for foreign film? "Good Bye Lenin" was way better. Well it seems the horror of real life is really effective if you want award, no one cares about quality. At least it's a quick watch, only 83 minutes.
powerful, political cinema
framptonhollis4 February 2017
"Osama" is a feminist movie focusing on where feminism is truly needed: the Middle East. This was the first film made in Afghanistan after the falling of the infamous terrorist group, the Taliban, and it focuses on this very subject matter. It is a realistic, tearjerking piece of political cinema that exposes the harsh realities of extremist groups such as the Taliban, who ruin the lives of many, especially women.
The film's plot is about a kind, little girl who is forced to be in disguise as a boy so she can work and gain money for her family. From here, a simplistic and tragic story begins. This is a moving, relentlessly gloomy depiction of humanity at its absolute worst, and it really is a very important and smashingly powerful film that should be witnessed by all.
The only real flaw is that the ending seemed mildly anti climactic. I felt like the film should have ended on a certain shot that felt like a really strong, ending note-but the film then went on for ten more minutes. To avoid spoilers, I will not specify which shot this is, but that's just sort of a nitpick anyway. You should really just see this incredible film!
The film's plot is about a kind, little girl who is forced to be in disguise as a boy so she can work and gain money for her family. From here, a simplistic and tragic story begins. This is a moving, relentlessly gloomy depiction of humanity at its absolute worst, and it really is a very important and smashingly powerful film that should be witnessed by all.
The only real flaw is that the ending seemed mildly anti climactic. I felt like the film should have ended on a certain shot that felt like a really strong, ending note-but the film then went on for ten more minutes. To avoid spoilers, I will not specify which shot this is, but that's just sort of a nitpick anyway. You should really just see this incredible film!
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