Osama (2003)

After the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the restriction of women in public life, a pre-teen girl is forced to masquerade as a boy in order to find work to support her mother and grandmother.

Director:

Siddiq Barmak

Writer:

Siddiq Barmak

Stars:

Marina Golbahari, Zubaida Sahar, Khwaja Nader

Won 1 Golden Globe. Another 14 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview:
Marina Golbahari	...	Osama
Khwaja Nader
Mohammad Arif Herati	...	Espandi
Zubaida Sahar	...	Mother
Mohamad Haref Harati
Hamida Refah
Gul Rehman Ghorbandi	...	Moazin
Mohammad Nadir Khwaja	...	Mullah

Storyline

The Taliban are ruling Afghanistan, they being a repressive regime especially for women, who, among other things, are not allowed to work. This situation is especially difficult for one family consisting solely of three women representing three successive generations. All the males in their family have died in various Afghani wars. The mother had been working as a nurse in a hospital, but regardless of she not being allowed to work, the Taliban has cut off funding to the hospital. The mother and grandmother make what they feel is the only decision they can to survive: they will have the preteen daughter masquerade as a boy so that she can get a job to support the family. The daughter, feeling powerless, agrees despite being scared as if the Taliban discover her masquerade, she is certain they will kill her. Partly as a symbolic measure, the daughter plants a lock of her now cut hair in a pot so that her lost femininity can flourish. The only people outside the family who know of the ...

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Plot Keywords:

taliban | boy | girl | school | hair | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Siddiq Barmak was helped in the making of his film by leading Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf who gave him $100,000 funding and the 35mm cameras and equipment he needed. Makhmalbaf also persuaded his regular cinematographer Ebrahim Ghafori to work on the project.

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Goofs

The first time Osama is encouraged to climb the tree, the amount of light on her face changes between shots. The close shot shows the right side of her face in shadow, while in the long shot from the top of the tree all of her face is in sunlight.

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Connections

Featured in The 61st Annual Golden Globe Awards (2004)

User Reviews

Can life be worse?

The Director is taking through us a 80 minutes journey through the eyes of a 13 year old girl in Afghanistan under the taliban...

The landscape full of limestone .....and the people unfortunate enough to have born into the wrong time....

barren land and lives.....

where every other woman is a widow and every other mother is a living tomb.......

Please listen to the soundtrack carefully.... especially the background score.... its really important..... it starts off with an iron swing..... ends with the sound of skipping rope hitting the ground.... Masterful.

I bet that after the movie, you will go and kiss your young daughter. You sure will.

My salute to the director who mesmerised me the whole 80 minutes....

saw this movie in 8th international film festival of kerala in 2003 where It got a grand applause.

This was the first movie made in post taliban regime in afghanistan. Truly commendable.

My 9 out of 10.

Details

Official Sites:

MGM

Country:

Afghanistan Ireland Japan Iran Netherlands

Language:

French Arabic Dari Pushto English

Release Date:

27 June 2003 (Afghanistan)

Also Known As:

Afghan Zero nen

Filming Locations:

Kabul, Afghanistan

Box Office

Budget:

$46,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$51,969, 8 February 2004

Gross USA:

$1,270,904

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$3,910,519

Company Credits

Production Co:

Barmak Film, LeBrocquy Fraser Productions, NHK

Technical Specs

Runtime:

83 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1