Osama
by Siddiq Barmak
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Actor: Arif Herati, Marina Golbahari, Mohamad Haref Harati, Mohamad Nader Khadjeh, Zubaida SaharDirector: Siddiq Barmak
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
Cinematographer: Ebrahim Ghafori
Editor: Siddiq Barmak
Producer: Siddiq Barmak
Writer: Siddiq Barmak
Producer: Julia Fraser
Producer: Julie LeBrocquy
Producer: Makoto Ueda
Producer: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Arabic (Original Language); English (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 83 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-04-27
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of Osama
DVD Review: If you seek to understand...
Summary: 5 Stars
Like another reviewer, I cried while watching this film. I knew the premise, and suspected what the ending would hold, but watched it anyway, for the sake of understanding. This is a film which cries out to be seen by women around the world. It is beyond my comprehension that now, in 2008, after all that women have endured, some of us are still dominated and brutalized by men. Yes, "it's a cultural thing," but that makes it no less wrong. I encourage all women to watch this film, to learn and understand, and to speak up for those whose weeping goes unheard. I also strongly recommend Khaled Hosseini's book, A Thousand Splendid Suns.DVD Review: Dull and predictable
Summary: 2 Stars
Osama is touted as the first film made in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban, and it was shot in Kabul. That should be a warning. Works of art that are touted as the first this or that tend to be bad, their only distinction being their chronological primacy. Such was the case with the atrocious Eskimo film of a few years back called Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner. In a sense, Osama is merely an Afghani Atanarjuat. The story is virtually non-existent, save that the Taliban is bad, evil, etc. Can you say duh? Aside from that there is little else. The whole film by director Siddiq Barmak is a mess, the acting- all done with `real people' shows why that fact is manifest, and the whole thing is merely a Right Wing screed- as much a propaganda film for that extreme of Americana as The Motorcycle Diaries was for the Left.... Unfortunately, the film never takes a stand politically, its screenplay is at a junior high school level, with some absurd symbolism- such as Osama jumping rope in prison, that is as hermetic as can be, unless we are to believe that this is the level of rebellion and hatred the Afghani populace can muster? The only good thing is that the film is relatively short- only 82 minutes. The cinematography by Ebrahim Ghafori never enthralls, despite the fantastic landscape of the tale, and the musical scoring, by Mohamhad Reza Darvishi, is standard issue quasi-Arabic stuff that gives absolutely no emotional cues, nor does anything to heighten nor enlighten what is seen.DVD Review: Stunning and Depressing
Summary: 3 Stars
Brilliant movie with a depressing ending. Don't buy it if sad movies make you depressed.DVD Review: Taliban
Summary: 5 Stars
Last night I saw one of the most moving videos I have ever seen, "Osama." It is the true story of a 12 year old girl living in Afghanistan during the Taliban. Incredibly well acted with amazing cinematography and filmed in Kabul, the little girl had to become a "boy" in order to save from starving her mother and grandmother.
Her father was deed and she had no male relatives. Taliban law did not allow a female to go outdoors without a family member male escort. Women were also banned from working. So she and her mom and grandmother were starving. Mom gets a great idea to dress her daughter as a boy so she could go outside escorted by her "male" relative. And so the harrowing on-the-edge-of-your-chair saga takes off.
The movie was funded by Iran per the movie's web site. Yet, the producer was still allowed to portray the Taliban in their agonizing Shaira law brutality to all and their almost hatred toward females.
The dialogue is in Pashtun (I guess) with English subtitles.
If the "we are seizing you boy for forced indoctrination into Taliban Islam" and the treatment of women in the movie under the Taliban are any where near the reality of Sharia law, we all should be terrified of this application of Islam.
Great movie.
DVD Review: sad but true
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this movie and I must say that I literally cried the entire time watching it because it was so sad. The oppression of women has been going on for a long time but to see it in such an extreme way was painful for me.The reality is that under the right circumstances and conditions such oppression can happen anywhere and that is what is scary.
Description of Osama
Inspired by a true story, this Golden Globe?(r)-winning* drama is the first film made in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban. Hailed by critics as 'stunning (Entertainment Weekly), breathtaking (Slant) and 'emotionally charged (Screen International), Osama is a striking work of cinematic art (L.A. Weekly). After the brutal Taliban regime bans women from working and forbids them to leave their homes without a male escort, a 12-year old girland her mother find themselves on the brink of starvation. With nowhere left to turn, the mother disguises her daughter as a boy. Now called Osama, the young girl embarks on a terrifying and confusing journey as she tries to keep the Taliban from discovering her true identity. *2003: Foreign Language FilmThe first movie produced by Afghanistan filmmakers after the fall of the Taliban, Osama is a searing portrait of life under the oppressive fundamentalist regime. Because women are not allowed to work, a widow disguises her young daughter (Marina Golbahari) as a boy so they won't starve to death. Simply walking the streets is frightening enough, but when the disguised girl is rounded up with all the boys in the town for religious training, her peril becomes absolutely harrowing. Golbahari's face--beautiful but taut with terror--is riveting. The movie captures both her plight and the miseries of daily life in spare, vivid images. At one point, her mother is nearly killed for exposing her feet while riding on the back of a bicycle; for the entire scene, the camera shows only her feet, with the spokes of the wheel radiating out behind as she lowers her burka over them. --Bret Fetzer
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