EvanL
02-24-2004, 05:39 PM
I would appreciate your comments on this. Its for a non-fiction writing class that i am taking.
Imagine getting beaten for showing your ankle, or stoned for going outside
without your husband. That’s what it was like for the women of Afghanistan under the
rule of the Taliban, a regime of religious zealots intent on enforcing their twisted idea of
Islam upon the country in order to keep their people living in fear. For one afghani family
this lifestyle bears too much of a burden. The family cannot get any money, because they
have no man to support them and women are forbidden to work. For them it is a matter of
life or death. They are presented with few choices and resort to disguising their only
daughter as a boy, so that she may work and provide them with food.
This is the story of “Osama”, the first major Afghan movie produced after the fall of the
Taliban. Director Siddiq Barmak, leads the viewer through a world filled with fear and
uncertainty. The movie centres on a girl who is forced to disguise herself as a boy so that
she may work. She is employed by a man who fought beside her late father in the
Mujihadeen, a guerrilla group formed to counter Soviet invasion of Afghanistan during
the 80’s. Working for as little as a loaf of bread a day, the girl commits herself to the job
until one day when the Taliban came. She is taken along with all the boys in the
neighbourhood to a Madrassah (Islamic school) run by the Taliban and supported by the
Al-Qaeda terrorist organization which calls the country home. Here she is forced to learn
the Talibans idea of Islam. She befriends a streetwise boy named Espandi, who takes her
under his wing knowing that she is in disguise and sticks up for her when she is
confronted by suspicious children intent on revealing her identity. It is through Espandi
that she takes on the name Osama.
Inspired by a true story, Osama is a rare overtly political film that is surely a work of
cinematic wonder. You are sure not to recognize any faces or names in this movie, the
director using only real afghanis as the characters. In fact, it was while walking through
the impoverished streets of Kabul, that the director Siddiq Barmak found the actress who
plays Osama, begging him for change. This helps give the movie a more realistic feel to
it. Osama is a movie that will surely keep you thinking for weeks and asking yourself for
years how the world could have overlooked such a problem as the one faced by the
afghani people.
Imagine getting beaten for showing your ankle, or stoned for going outside
without your husband. That’s what it was like for the women of Afghanistan under the
rule of the Taliban, a regime of religious zealots intent on enforcing their twisted idea of
Islam upon the country in order to keep their people living in fear. For one afghani family
this lifestyle bears too much of a burden. The family cannot get any money, because they
have no man to support them and women are forbidden to work. For them it is a matter of
life or death. They are presented with few choices and resort to disguising their only
daughter as a boy, so that she may work and provide them with food.
This is the story of “Osama”, the first major Afghan movie produced after the fall of the
Taliban. Director Siddiq Barmak, leads the viewer through a world filled with fear and
uncertainty. The movie centres on a girl who is forced to disguise herself as a boy so that
she may work. She is employed by a man who fought beside her late father in the
Mujihadeen, a guerrilla group formed to counter Soviet invasion of Afghanistan during
the 80’s. Working for as little as a loaf of bread a day, the girl commits herself to the job
until one day when the Taliban came. She is taken along with all the boys in the
neighbourhood to a Madrassah (Islamic school) run by the Taliban and supported by the
Al-Qaeda terrorist organization which calls the country home. Here she is forced to learn
the Talibans idea of Islam. She befriends a streetwise boy named Espandi, who takes her
under his wing knowing that she is in disguise and sticks up for her when she is
confronted by suspicious children intent on revealing her identity. It is through Espandi
that she takes on the name Osama.
Inspired by a true story, Osama is a rare overtly political film that is surely a work of
cinematic wonder. You are sure not to recognize any faces or names in this movie, the
director using only real afghanis as the characters. In fact, it was while walking through
the impoverished streets of Kabul, that the director Siddiq Barmak found the actress who
plays Osama, begging him for change. This helps give the movie a more realistic feel to
it. Osama is a movie that will surely keep you thinking for weeks and asking yourself for
years how the world could have overlooked such a problem as the one faced by the
afghani people.