Osama (2003)

Mother: "I wish I had a son instead of a daughter. He would help me with work. I wish God hadn't created women."

By Siddiq Barmak
With Marina Golbahari

After I watched a few Afghani films, I decided to see a list of them. I saw that Osama was the first film made after the fall of the Taliban regime which had banned movies. The topic seemed quite up my alley.

An unnamed young girl is being pushed in every directions alongside her mother when the Taliban interrupt a women protest. The women are asking for the right to work. The girl's mother is a widow and a doctor but has no way of supporting her family if she cannot work at the hospital. In collaboration with the grandmother, they decide to disguise their young girl as a boy, cutting her hair and have him escort the mother, since a woman can't go out without a male. A friend of the late father even accepts to hire the girl turned boy in his shop, but things become perilous when the Taliban recruit all the young boys for indoctrination and military training.

Osama is a grim film and it depicts real life horror without any blood. We are just as lost as the girl in the streets and her fear of being caught is terrifying. She is alone and it's impossible for her to count on anybody. The movie is really good in most aspects: it's beautiful, the story draws the viewer in and there's as much suspense as in a thriller.

The colors are only seen on burqa, the rest being shared between shades of grey and brown. The young amateur actress is doing a really good job and her high pitched voice is really nerve wracking when we know she has to pass as a boy, facing a great deal of consequences if not. One has to wonder about the involvement of the mother and grandmother who do not seem to grasp the dangers of the situation they put their own daughter/granddaughter in. As much as they face troubles by being unable to work, what allows them to use their girl in such a way?

The movie makes no mention of any moral dilemmas they might have concerning this, even going as far as putting the blame on the girl when she becomes suspected. This isolates the girl even further and the downward spiral is all but ready to begin with.

As good as the movie and story are depicted, there is something that is amiss. There is not a single glimpse of hope, all the smiles are powerless. I usually enjoy sad and depressing movies but this is on quite a particular level. The only comfort there is to be found is the fact that the Taliban regime had fallen once the film came out and the only hope is to believe that it got better. This movie will not teach you anything of the sort, in fact, the only lesson to learn from this movie is that if you have to get born in Afghanistan you have to be a boy.

I liked : Good story. Powerful acting. Unforgettable.

I disliked: Abandon all hope. No teaching, nothing to learn. What is there beyond all this sadness?

67/100
A powerful film in a forsaken place. Dark and grim, the loss of human rights.