Osama (2003)
Director: Siddiq Barmak
Screenplay: Siddiq Barmak
Running time: 83 minutes
DON'T let the title fool you - this isn’t a story about You Know Who, who might or might not be lurking in the Tora Bora Mountains or skulking somewhere in Pakistan’s Pushtan region.
First off, the similarities; the setting is Afghanistan, the topic is fundamentalist Islam and there is of course, that name. However, that is where the likenesses end. For a start, the Osama in this story is a 12-year old girl caught up in a nightmarish situation during the Taleban regime in Afghanistan. With her father and brothers dead, and a mother to support, the young Osama has to fend for them both by pretending to be a boy due to the Taleban’s suppression of allowing girls or woman to work. This horrible Catch 22 situation shows the trials and tribulations she has to go through in order to survive.
It is a bleak and depressing film, but so beautifully acted and shot it will be a hard one to forget. Lead Marina Golbahari was discovered by writer/director Saddiq Barmak begging in a Kabul street and her performance is as exquisite as it is painful. Without giving too much away, the ending gives pause to the ultimate fate of the Taleban, and leaves little sympathy for their plight.
4 stars out of 5
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