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By
DEBORAH NICOL
In a demonstration for their
lives, blue burqa-ed women walk together in a
clearly stated anti-political anti-protest, simply
begging for work. Their husbands and brothers have
all died in war, and according to Taliban
regulations they have no suitable means to earn
money for food. Yet the men who could immediately
affect change charge these women, sending them
into hiding or into a beating, for having the
audacity to request a means to earn a livelihood.
First-time Afghani director Siddiq Barmak takes a
shockingly forthright view of his country before
the fall of the Taliban. His actors are locals
pulled off the streets who have felt the terror of
the regime and have lived through the atrocities.
The movie is woven from true stories that occurred
in Kabul, in order to provide a truthful
perspective to outsiders of the male-dominated
nation.
The title character is not bin Laden, but a young
girl posing as a boy in order to survive. Terror
rips the girl apart at every seam – too terrified
to walk the streets alone (forbidden for women),
too terrified to speak (her high-pitched voice
reveals her identity), too terrified to play with
the boys (sadly, this is foreign to her). She is
forever quaking at the thought of being caught and
punished, and has no wishes for continuing the
masquerade. Marina Golbahari beautifully and
painfully portrays this anguished child, who
plants her cut hair and feeds it by IV drip
(providing an example of Barmak's striking
imagery) -- a relic of her mother's forbidden job
as a nurse. Osama's only protector is a young,
energetic boy named Espani (freshly played by Arif
Herati), who finds himself defending her amongst
the school boys, despite the obvious risk to his
safety for doing so.
The women are forever locked away, whether in
actual cages, under their burqas, or in their
rooms. The elderly husband of an arranged marriage
even gleefully asks his new, young bride which
lock she would like on her door, as if it were a
honeymoon gift.
Writing from the safety of a truly free country,
it is horrific to imagine forever living in fear,
forever stifling any hope for a peaceful existence
much less happiness. This movie raises the obvious
question of how to destroy such a mindset. Is
warring with a country so indifferent to everyday
brutalities really the solution? Is change
possible with a single bomb, or is there a way to
re-educate those trained by generations before
them? "Osama" itself is a brilliantly harsh tool
for cultural transformation, an alert that
devastations do not occur only on the frontline.
DVD extras include an interview with the
enthusiastic director and movie trailers. |
