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Director:
Siddiq Barmak

Starring:
Marina Golbahari
Arif Herati
Zubaida Sahar

Release: 6 Feb. 04
IMDb

So, if I may be so bold as to ask, is there an Iranian or Afghan film genre that doesn’t obsess over the treatment of women. It’s like all the activists make films to speak their concerns to each other but never take the time to make sure anyone else cares. By the time Osama, a noble if insignificant entrant in this film movement, comes to a close, one can only imagine the greater good that might have been done had the filmmakers instead used their efforts to extol their fellow countrymen of the mistreatment of women. Film going, I’m assuming, isn’t quite the same in Tehran as it is in Mumbai, India.

Yes, there is a side to this that the Westerners are the real audience, our riches waiting to be appropriated to them in hopes of changing the area’s social mores. But Osama, like the rest of the pack, doesn’t pull of the complete fight for U.S., U.N., NATO, E.U., or any other abbreviated government or non-governmental body aid. What’s portrayed, for must of us, at least, is a maudlin story of a girl trying to survive in Afghanistan after being dressed a little boy for better potential in life. Though compelling at times, this is mighty boring storytelling for a well meaning purpose. Its claim to fame, evidently, is its willingness to utter the name of Public Enemy No. 1 in its title, but unlike most segments in 11’09”01 -- September 11, the impression isn’t that we should remember that the problems of life, from illness to poverty to terrorism, are existent everywhere. Osama takes a more counterintuitive approach: feel bad for us, we’re worse off than you. No matter how true this might be, who wants to think their daily dramas are pitifully minor in the overall scheme of things?