OSAMA Rating: (out of 5 stars) Director: Siddiq Barmak Producer: Barmak Films Writer: Siddiq Barmak Director of Photography: Ebrahim Ghafuri Cast: Marina Golbahari, Khwaja Nader, Arif Herati Visit the IMDB page for full cast and crew

(Read the interview with writer/director Siddiq Barmak)

Review by: Warren Curry
2/1/04

I wonder how many people are going to mistake this movie, based on its conspicuous title, for a scathing biopic about Osama Bin Laden? Siddiq Barmak's Osama is indeed a critical film, and the target of that criticism is Afghanistan's Taliban regime -- specifically that government's appalling oppression of women. Barmak uses the sad tale of a 12-year-old Afghan girl in a destitute family, who must pose as a young boy in hopes of obtaining work, as a vehicle to express outrage at the government that once ruled his country with a brutally iron hand. Osama is a work propelled by sociopolitical conviction, but its statement is tempered with a filmmaking finesse not often seen in movies that communicate so bluntly.

Osama opens through the camera lens of a foreign journalist who is filming an Afghan boy begging on the streets of his village. Suddenly, we see a mass of women walking through the village -- a peaceful demonstration directed at the mistreatment of females under Taliban rule. The demonstration comes to an abrupt halt when members of the government put a violent end to the proceedings.

Narrowly escaping the violence is a young girl (Marina Golbahari) and her mother, who struggle to survive in a family without any male members. Their well being is made infinitely harder due to the fact that under Taliban law no women are allowed to work or even leave their home without a male companion. But mother and daughter have been able to work covertly in a small hospital; however, this means of income is terminated when the Taliban raids the hospital.

Left with no other viable option, the mother cuts her daughter's hair and disguises her as a boy. The girl finds work with a local grocer, who maintains the ruse, but life is further disrupted when the boys of the village are rounded up and forced to attend a training school where they are instructed in the ways of religion and manhood. The girl, who has been named Osama by the begging boy in the first scene, has her gender constantly questioned by the other children in the training school. For Osama, the potential consequences of her identity being revealed are unthinkable, and she must do all she can to preserve her disguise.

Like many message-heavy films, Osama stumbles once or twice when its ideology escapes the confines of its artistry. But Siddiq Barmak has a vision here that meshes smoothly with his activism. Barmak's voice speaks largely through the film's arresting images, and the visuals range in scope from handheld hyperrealism to haunting, ethereal slow motion. Occasionally choppy editing can jerk the narrative flow around, but also heightens the mounting sense of turmoil. Osama is a unique film in the sense that its flaws can add to its power.

All of the actors are non-professionals, and Barmak handles them effectively. No character is burdened with an excessive amount of dialogue, and if the line readings are sometimes flat, erring on the side of restraint is just about always the better directorial path to choose. Barmak scored a major coup in casting Marina Golbahari as his lead. The young girl's cherubic face of pure innocence helps to ensure some amount of emotional investment right from the start, and her performance in the film's direst of moments rings completely true.

Films from the Middle East have been starting to trickle into the U.S. more steadily in the past few years, and while most of these movies have a decidedly political bent, the filmmakers behind them are adept at not obscuring the humanism of their messages in a flood of blanket statement polemics. Osama is a movie about issues to be sure, but more so -- and most importantly -- it's about the people suffering because of them.

(A United Artists release. Opens in New York and Los Angeles on February 6, 2004. Expands to more cities at later dates.)

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