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Osama - Marina Golbahari, Arif Herati, Zubaida Sahar, Siddiq Barmak

Threat advisory: High - High risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

To save her family a girl must become a boy. Her story is true. Her name is Osama.

A 12-year-old girl (Marina Golbahari), her mother (Zubaida Sahar) and a young boy (Spandi) have survived the repressed demonstrations launched by Afghan women at the beginning of Taliban regime. The girl and her mother work in a hospital and soon become aware that the Taliban have dismissed all the people working there and have closed its gate. The Taliban make sure that no women can get out of their houses without a legal companion (any member of their family). If they do so they will be punished.

With both her husband and brother dead, there is no one to support the family and the girl's mother, who has lost her job, decides together with the girl's grandmother to change the appearance of her daughter to look like a boy. This decision terrifies the girl, as she is afraid of what will happen if the Taliban finds out her true identity.

To get a job, the mother and the girl go to the milkman who was an old friend of the girl's slain father. From here the young girl sees life very differently.

After starting her new job, the religious police of the Taliban force the people to go to mosque for noon prayer. The girl who is still not familiar with these regulations makes mistakes during the prayer session, which causes a Taliban to become suspicious.

The next day all the local boys including the girl (now in disguise) are taken to the religious school called Madrassa, which is also the centre for military training by the Taliban. After avoiding detection with the help of Spandi (who names the girl Osama, to assist in the deception) the Taliban finally discover the real face of Osama and she is put in jail. The Taliban's judicial court, which advocates stoning and execution, force the girl to marry an old Mullah, who'd noticed her at the military camp. After they are married the girl discovers that she is the Mullah's fourth wife...

Inspired by a true story, Osama is the first entirely Afghan film shot since the rise and fall of the Taliban.

Theatrical propaganda posters

Osama image

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

  • Film Afghanistan Taliban true drama impersonation girl boy

Persons of interest

  • Marina Golbahari .... Osama
  • Arif Herati .... Espandi
  • Zubaida Sahar .... Mother
  • Gol Rahman Ghorbandi
  • Mohamad Haref Harati
  • Mohamad Nader Khadjeh
  • Khwaja Nader
  • Hamida Refah
  • Siddiq Barmak .... Screenwriter
  • Siddiq Barmak .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Woah.

Osama is an in-your-face film about the oppressive nature of religion in general and the Taliban in particular. Now, all religions are silly, it's just a part of their nature, but the Taliban - like every other dictatorship - took silliness and made it a lifestyle. A woman can't go out of the house without a member of the family to guard her? That's like saying "Locking up women at night will prevent them from being assaulted by men."

Anyway, although Osama is not a documentary, it might as well be one. The events portrayed occurred and are still occurring all over Afghanistan (and other parts of the Islamic world). Of course, they also occur in the Hindu world, the Communist world, the Christian world, the Jewish world... anywhere that there is a division between genders. (Here's a rule of thumb: as females comprise 51% of humanity it follows logically that females should make up 51% of the government, if not, then the government is run by bigots.)

Moving right along, you will be affected by Osama in some way: it's too real a film not to affect you. The terror in which some people make other people live is inhuman. Watch it.

Media intelligence (DVD)

  • Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • Languages: Dari, English, Pashtu
  • Picture: Widescreen
  • Special features:
    • Documentaries:
      • Marina - A documentary about life on the streets of Kabul (53 minutes)
      • Sharing hope and freedom - Mini doco and interview
    • Trailers: Theatrical
  • Subtitles: English

Security censorship classification

M (Adult themes, medium level violence)

Surveillance time

82 minutes (1:22 hours)

Not for public release in Australia before date

Film: 29 April 2004
DVD rental: 3 November 2004
VHS rental: 3 November 2004
DVD retail: 16 March 2005
VHS retail: 16 March 2005

Cinema surveillance images

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