Osama (2003)
Country: AFG/EIRE/JAP
Technical: col 83m
Director: Siddiq Barmak
Cast: Marina Golbahari, Khwaja Nader, Arif Herati, Zubaida Sahar
Synopsis:
In Afghanistan under the Taliban a woman doctor is obliged to stop working at the hospital and disguise her daughter as a boy in order to have one wage earner in the household. But he/she is soon conscripted into military school and it is not long before she is discovered and tried under Taliban law.
Review:
This vivid, eventful panorama of life under the Taliban was one of the first films to be produced after its fall in 2001. One keeps expecting a happy resolution which never comes, perhaps because it is only a child one is observing. The style is a mix of handheld realism and sudden accesses of imagined or remembered incident. All the while one is stunned by the quality of the acting and the assurance of the production in circumstances which can have been far from conducive to collaborative artistic endeavour. To have achieved something this close to greatness is all the more astounding. The film's rapid narrative and 'first person' perspective conspire to resemble a thriller plot dynamic; at the same time one's knowledge of the probable spiritual truth of the events produces the effect of profound shock and pity for the hapless women.
Country: AFG/EIRE/JAP
Technical: col 83m
Director: Siddiq Barmak
Cast: Marina Golbahari, Khwaja Nader, Arif Herati, Zubaida Sahar
Synopsis:
In Afghanistan under the Taliban a woman doctor is obliged to stop working at the hospital and disguise her daughter as a boy in order to have one wage earner in the household. But he/she is soon conscripted into military school and it is not long before she is discovered and tried under Taliban law.
Review:
This vivid, eventful panorama of life under the Taliban was one of the first films to be produced after its fall in 2001. One keeps expecting a happy resolution which never comes, perhaps because it is only a child one is observing. The style is a mix of handheld realism and sudden accesses of imagined or remembered incident. All the while one is stunned by the quality of the acting and the assurance of the production in circumstances which can have been far from conducive to collaborative artistic endeavour. To have achieved something this close to greatness is all the more astounding. The film's rapid narrative and 'first person' perspective conspire to resemble a thriller plot dynamic; at the same time one's knowledge of the probable spiritual truth of the events produces the effect of profound shock and pity for the hapless women.
Country: AFG/EIRE/JAP
Technical: col 83m
Director: Siddiq Barmak
Cast: Marina Golbahari, Khwaja Nader, Arif Herati, Zubaida Sahar
Synopsis:
In Afghanistan under the Taliban a woman doctor is obliged to stop working at the hospital and disguise her daughter as a boy in order to have one wage earner in the household. But he/she is soon conscripted into military school and it is not long before she is discovered and tried under Taliban law.
Review:
This vivid, eventful panorama of life under the Taliban was one of the first films to be produced after its fall in 2001. One keeps expecting a happy resolution which never comes, perhaps because it is only a child one is observing. The style is a mix of handheld realism and sudden accesses of imagined or remembered incident. All the while one is stunned by the quality of the acting and the assurance of the production in circumstances which can have been far from conducive to collaborative artistic endeavour. To have achieved something this close to greatness is all the more astounding. The film's rapid narrative and 'first person' perspective conspire to resemble a thriller plot dynamic; at the same time one's knowledge of the probable spiritual truth of the events produces the effect of profound shock and pity for the hapless women.