02 April 2006

Praising Osama......

By which I do not under any circumstances mean Bin Laden but the first film to be made in Afghanistan after the overthrow of the Taliban. It is an utterly harrowing flm that used amateur actors, including the lead a young woman called Marina Golbaharari to superb effect. I must admit I am being lazy using a review from Tiscali but it sums the film up very well. What I will say is do whatever you have to do to see this film:

"Shot in post-Taliban Afghanistan in extremely trying conditions Osama is a harrowing account of life under the oppressive regime that fell after September 11. The film has won an impressive number of awards since it first appeared at film festivals last year, culminating with the 2004 Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film. As anything as outlandish as film-making was banned under the Taliban, it is director Siddiq Barmak's first official outing, although having gained a film degree from the University of Moscow in the late 80s, it is clear that this is no amateur talent.

Western audiences used to Hollywood's commercial fare may initially find Barmak's film rather naïve in both the manner it is shot and the style of acting. It is often hand-held and jumpy and the actors are all non-professional. Nevertheless there is a star in the making thanks to the girl playing the lead role, Marina Golbahari. At the beginning of the film she plays a twelve-year-old girl who lives with her mother after the death of her father and brother. But when the Taliban close down the hospital her mother works in, the two are left destitute. Until her mother has an idea: to cut the daughter's hair, dress her as a boy and name her Osama.

The ploy works - to begin with - as Osama finds some petty employment looking after a neighbour's shop. But when the Taliban come searching, she/he is discovered and sent to the official training school for young Taliban fighters. There Osama is surrounded by male pupils and teachers, as the oppressive government didn't even recognise women as second class citizens.

As Osama realises she is not going to be able to fool her peers for long, she decides to escape, but in doing so only raises an alarm that has catastrophic consequences. Many of the scenes in the film are played out without words, and some of the final harrowing sequences will bring a lump to the throat.

This is a remarkable and rare insight into a world that until now has remained shrouded in non-democratic secrecy. The filming is simple, but the end message is powerful, upsetting and eye-opening".

1 comment:

Agnes said...

Left me breathless. The movie, not your post. "Along the way, we're given insight into how the sexes are treated so radically different under the Taliban. We are shown how boys are taught, from an early age, to clean themselves religiously in order to remain pure especially after "wet dreams" or possible sexual encounters with women. From the first frame, Osama plunges us into a world that we cannot escape, a world of upmost oppression of women, one ruled by force, and permeated with threat and intimidation. Fear, dread and despair haunts every camera movement, every sound, every tableau in this film. And at the centre is the young girl, given the name Osama, through whom we experience this world. Her face and body - constantly twisted in fear - and her voice - that shrieks with horror: she represents hope and innocence plunged into perennial darkness. Just one example, after being wedded to an old man, she is given the opportunity to choose her own door padlock . Siddiq Barmak's film is poetry and politics intertwined.. Not your post, the movie; "
(in:http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/festivals/03/27/miff2003_daily_reports.html
(I warmly recommend the site)

also, from the same site: "Told with a poetic economy, Osama is charged with a deeply felt compassion for women living under the Taliban. The tragedy at the heart of the film comes through the innocence of the girl, whose transition into womanhood is also the beginning of her condemnation and exclusion from society. Osama illustrates a culture unable to develop and grow, symbolising “the complete loss of identity of [my] people under the Taliban" (in:http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/festivals/04/30/47th_london_ff.html

Regards, Redwine