4/5 A STUNNING INDICTMENT OF THE TALIBAN REGIME...
  by Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle)
This 2004 Golden Globe award winner for Best Foreign Language film, directed by Afghani Siddiq Barmak, is a stunning indictment of the repressive, fundamentalist Taliban regime and its treatment of women. Filmed on a shoestring budget, the film is a composite of a number of true stories, coalescing into one. It is harrowing look at a feudal sort of government that equated women with little more than chattel. Forced to be totally dependent on men, the question arises as to what would be their fate, if all the men in their world were to no longer be there for them.

This is the issue that confronts one particular woman, a widowed doctor, who treats patients in secret. Unfortunately, the hospital, if one can call it that, has not paid her for some time, and she can no longer work there. Moreover, it has become too dangerous for her to travel the streets, as she is a lone woman forbidden to travel the streets without the accompaniment of a member of the male sex. As her household consists solely of three generation of women, having lost her husband and her brother, circumstances are dire indeed.

She must devise some plan of getting or earning their daily bread, if they are to survive. She turns to her young timid daughter, a girl on the cusp of womanhood. She decides that her beautiful daughter must disguise herself as a boy and go out into the world to help earn some food for the family, or they will die. Thus, the daughter is transformed into a boy called Osama. The mother then takes Osama to see a kindly former comrade of Osama's late father, who now runs a small dusty shop. There, Osama is left to work, stirring cauldrons of steaming milk, scenes that are positively medieval.

Passing as a boy, Osama is obliged to do those things that a male is expected to do. So, when the Taliban police come to the shop looking for boys for indoctrination at a mullah run school, Osama has no choice but to go. Thus, begins the downfall of Osama. Despite the best efforts of Espandi, an enterprising street urchin who has befriended Osama and knows her secret, Osama is to continue a harrowing journey that only one of her sex may travel.

This is an intriguing film that, despite being somewhat choppy and disjointed in the telling, provides a birds-eye view at what life was like for women under the Taliban. The beautiful imagery of the film is a strong counterpoint to the harshness of Taliban rule. It is a mercy for women that the Taliban is no longer in power. This film certainly brings home the absolute cruelty of that regime towards women.

Though the director uses non-actors for the roles in the film, each one of them does a yeoman's job with the given role. Arif Herati, who plays the role of Espandi, has a great deal of screen presence. Marina Gobahan, who has the starring role of Osama, is excellent as the timid and shy girl who reluctantly cross dresses as a male in order to help her family. Her terror of being killed and her fear of the Taliban is palpable throughout the film. Her eyes are most expressive, world weary and infinitely sad. It were those very eyes that drew the director to cast her in the role of Osama. This is a film that will leave its imprint on the viewer.

The DVD offers little by way of special features, though it does offer a moderately interesting interview with the director that runs about twenty minutes in length.

5/5 Putting a human face on Taliban rule in Afghanistan
  by S. Calhoun (Chicago, IL United States)
OSAMA is a stark and grim film that highlights the oppressive regime of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Based on a true story, this film follows the life of a 12-year-old Afghan girl and her mother. After the Taliban shut down the hospital that the mother works at she is desperate to find work but her efforts are bleak because she cannot go out in public without being escorted by a male. With no men in her family and no one else to help her the girl is transformed into a boy to help support the family. Aside from escorting her mother through the streets she finds work in a small foods shop. Each time she ventures outside she fears her life because if she is caught the Taliban will do serious harm to her. In addition, she fails to fully personify a boy since she speaks with a high voice, wears feminine slippers, and doesn't know the proper prayer rituals. But soon enough she is forced to join a Taliban school. During sessions of religious and military training her secret is close to being revealed. The only other boy who knows the truth names her Osama in an effort to try to ward off suspicions from the other boys. After her disguise is revealed and the Taliban has arrested her she is sure to suffer an unspeakable sentence for imitating a boy. Her future is bleak and desperate. There is no happy ending in this film, and the audience is left with a sad feeling of despair and shock. Surely we've all heard the atrocities committed by the Taliban since 9/11/01, but OSAMA enables the viewer to get a powerful glimpse of the horrendous events in Afghanistan under the Taliban. This is the first film to come out of this impoverished country since the end of the Taliban regime, but I hope it's not the last. There are a multitude of stories of Taliban victims that deserve to be heard. These people should not suffer alone. Putting a human face on this tragedy often results in the outside world understanding the horrors that happened. OSAMA is an excellent film that succeeds on many levels, and is highly recommended.

5/5 One Girl's Survival in Afganistan; Strong and Sad
  by Tsuyoshi (Kyoto, Japan)
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.

5/5 Life In A Nightmare World. A Powerful, Gripping Film!
  by Jana L. Perskie (New York, NY USA)
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

4/5 harrowing view of life under the Taliban
  by Roland E. Zwick (Valencia, Ca USA)
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.