Review of Osama (2004) by Budge B — 13 Apr 2009

Widely advertised as the first film to be made in Afghanistan after the overthrow of the Taliban, director Siddiq Barmak brings his documentary filmmaker skills to the ruined streets of Kabul to tell the story of a young girl struggling to survive.

Marina Golbahari plays the part of a 12-year old whose mother is struggling to find enough money to feed the family - her husband and brother were killed by the Russians, she has not been paid for some time, and the hospital in which she worked is now closing. Golbahari was actually found begging on the streets and had never seen a film or television. Other actors in the film were discovered in refugee camps or on the streets.

The characters in the film are often stripped of their names - this is a society in which the Taliban stripped people of their identity, demanding instead that they become mere ciphers who obeyed rules and followed prescribed dictates like automatons. Barmak says he chose to call the film "Osama" not so people would think it was about bin Laden, but because he sees bin Laden as responsible for stripping away the identities of ordinary Afghanis.

The girl dresses as a boy so she can work and earn enough to feed the family, but she is coerced into school to learn the Koran - when the other pupils accuse her of being a girl, one boy stands up for her and announces that her name is Osama, hoping it will instil fear into the others.

Barmak exposes the violence of Taliban society and its destruction of identity. The Taliban banned pictures, and Barmak himself had to flee from Kabul. He portrays a city in which journalists are executed for taking photographs, women are blamed for arousing men and are forced to cover themselves from head to toe and remove themselves from male society. Even domestic life is policed to enforce rigorously puritan standards, all in the name of salvation and the word!

This is a superbly shot, superbly performed piece - especially given the provenance of the actors. There is no glamour here, merely a brutal reality which contrasts with the flaccid trivia which so often appears on commercial Western screens.

Afghanistan, of course, has no oil, so no one is rushing to pump aid into the country. It does occupy an important strategic position, so for centuries powerful nations have striven to occupy it and control movement across it. "Osama" is not a film which offers much in the way of hope. It is a film in which you have no problem sympathising with the girl. But it's a film which exposes the gulf of cultural dissonance between Kabul and the Western world and one which emphasises the sense of powerlessness to which Afghanis are exposed.

Here, nothing can be taken for granted. Women have to plan the day so they can be accompanied by a male relative if they need to go anywhere. They have to apologise for their existence and their corrupting influence on males. They are powerless, turned into amorphous blue shadows of themselves.

Barmak's technique - hand held camera and a documentary style - fractures the lives of the women into disjointed episodes. The girl has no control over her own narrative - she is thrown where male society (or the filmmaker) will cast her. Her life spirals out of control. At best she gets through another day with another mouthful of bread to sustain herself.

A fascinating, bleak, but thoroughly absorbing film, and one which challenges your preconceptions and assumptions.