‘Films can give Afghans a mirror to help restore identity’

“Yes the time has come for a film on post-Taliban Afghanistan. May be I’ll make one...”

“I’M honest about my country, and its history. Osama is just a drop from the ocean of pain that Afghanistan was under the Taliban,” says Sedigh Barmak, whose Golden Globe Award winning movie, Osama, was screened on Tuesday at Jamia Milia Islamia’s Ansari auditorium.

But it’s been six years since Afghanistan was freed from the Taliban, so isn’t it time to show the world what it is like to live in a Taliban-free country? “Yes the time has come for a film on post-Taliban Afghanistan. May be I’ll make one…”

Like many Afghan returnees, Barmak has faith in his people’s ability to rebuild the country. But as with Osama, which was produced with funding from Ireland, Iran and Japan, he knows they will need a lot of help. Movies, he says, will play their part: “They can give Afghans a mirror with which to restore their sense of identity.”

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Osama, made in 2002, is the first Afghan feature film to be made in Afghanistan since the Taliban rolled into Kabul in 1996.

While Osama was much appreciated by the packed audience, there were some who accused Barmak of bias. “Why only harp on their negatives, weren’t there some positive sides to the Taliban?” asked Mohammad Asjad, a student.

“I have presented the reality as I have seen it ,” answers Barmak. Journalist Saeed Naqvi who was present at the screening said: “Barmak’s film is from his point of view. There may be differences of opinions. A piece of art is always subject to discussions and criticism.”

Sedigh Barmak, born in 1962 in Afghanistan, studied cinema at the University of Moscow, where he made a number of student films. Graduating in 1987, he returned to Afghanistan. Two of his short films were banned by the Taliban. Barmak then moved to Pakistan where he came across a letter from an Afghan teacher about a girl who wanted to go to school at a time the Taliban prohibited education for girls. The girl changed her appearance by cutting her hair and dressing like boys to attend school.

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“The story moved me and inspired the film Osama…” says Barmak, who encountered Marina Golbahari, who plays the 12-year-old girl lead character, on a Kabul street.

But why does the girl choose the name Osama? “This name is synonymous with horror and fear in Afghanistan. She feels men won’t bother her much and will be afraid of her if she is called Osama,” says Golbahari.