Osama is the first Afghan film made after the fall of the Taliban regime. In its production, Barmak was supported by the Makhmalbaf Film House, the production company run by the well-known Iranian film family that has long taken an interest in the fate of the Afghan people (for instance in Kandahar and Five O’Clock in the Afternoon). This Iranian connection is visible in Osama in the way in which this realistic story is portrayed poetically yet without much gloss. But Barmak has his very own special message to tell in his story about a young girl in Kabul under the Taliban regime. In Kabul, a 12-year-old girl is dressed up as a boy. Her long hair is cut, she takes off her burqa and puts on men’s clothing. It’s drastic, but the only way to survive. The girl lives alone with her mother and grandmother and under the Taliban regime, women are not allowed out in the street unless accompanied by a male relative. Fortunately Osama, as the girl is called from now on, is able to work in the shop of an old Army comrade of her father. One day, Osama is taken along for religious and military training along with dozens of other boys. It’s a perilous situation; if her deception is found out, a death sentence is not inconceivable. Osama tries to adjust to life as a boy, including climbing trees and visiting the bathhouse. While there’s a perpetual danger of her being unmasked, Osama get help from an unexpected corner.
