Osama (subtitles)

            This Afghanistan film is not about Osama Bin Laden, rather it is a poignant look at the plight of women under the Taliban.  It portrays the result of this extremist religious rightwing group gaining control. 

            Siddiq Barmak, an Afghan filmmaker, wrote and directed the film.  He created this fictitious story line from real events and he chose to dramatize the situation by using a 12-year-old girl as the protagonist.  What she endures in the story will tear your heart out.  This film captures both the cruel domination by men as well as the untenable and miserable existence of females in the society.  However, events are neither overplayed nor underplayed.  They just occur.  And it's this docu-drama aspect of the film that is so engaging and that give it such impact.  It's also interesting that violence is never shown, it's either implied or it happens off camera.  Somehow, this sensitivity to the audience makes the story even more compelling.

            None of the actors used were professionals and that's particularly surprising considering the performances of Marina Golbahari who plays Osama and the boy she meets, Arif Herati, who plays Espandi.  Golbahari's eyes create an aura of misery that I suspect mirrors her earlier life in Afghanistan.  And Herati is the scheming entrepreneur in real life that he portrays on the screen.  We learn from the special features that his stated condition for doing the role was that the director had to buy all the dogs he was selling.

            This glimpse of life under the Taliban seems like a rendition of an alien world on some remote planet, yet its right here on our earth.   And its not just the Draconian discrimination against females that so shocking.  It's also the basic struggle for survival, on a barren, unfriendly colorless landscape - a message we get both from the plotline and the professional cinematography.

            It's worth watching Siddiq Barmak's personal journey in making this film in the special features section of the DVD.  I came away believing that he is a talented, sincere man attempting to tell the truth with film. 

            Reviewed March 21, 2005

            MPAA: Rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements.