Osama

(Siddiq Barmak, Afghanistan, 2003)

There are some films – hopefully not too many – in which intrinsic social or political importance outweighs aesthetic quality. Osama, which comes to us as the "first feature film in the new era of Afghanistan", is one such film.

Siddiq Barmak is a Russian-trained director whose career went underground during the Taliban regime. Now that he has the chance to express himself in a feature film, the result demonstrates a steely, quiet anger which, in its accumulative effect, is quite overwhelming.

Osama focuses on the plight of a twelve year-old girl (Marina Golbahari), on the brink of puberty, whose mother decides she should pass as a boy named Osama in order to earn some money for the fatherless family.

Beyond a slight visual androgyny, the girl's masquerade is not terribly convincing, even to her peers. But she stays "in character" long enough to get a lingering glimpse into the fearsome world of the Taliban's male culture.

Barmak uses a deliberately static, hard-edge, observational style reminiscent of much recent Iranian cinema. There is much that seems clumsy in its execution, but that is inevitable coming from a country that has effectively had no movie industry or filmic culture in decades. What counts are the faces, the interiors (of homes and workplaces), the landscapes, and especially the haunting, repetitive noise-effects.

This movie has gloom and doom written all over it from the first frame. It is a tale in which resistance seemingly counts for little, and oppression crushes the soul. Scenes devoted to the girl's tearing solitude, her inconsolable despair, and ultimately her resignation in the face of an impossible situation add up to a grim reflection of a broken society.

On the other hand, the very fact that Osama exists, and can reach cinemas around the world, is itself an optimistic message.

© Adrian Martin April 2004