Siddiq Barmak: Osama, 2003 and The Invasion File, 1997

An event organized by the ZKM⎥Karlsruhe in cooperation with the Goethe-Forum / Munich and the ErsatzStadt-Projekt / Berlin und sponsored the Federal Government Cultural Foundation. 
Programme idea: Sandra Schäfer

To date, Afghanistan has mostly been used to provide a scenic background for action films like »Rambo 3« or shown through the eyes of Western media. On show at this preview is »OSAMA«, the first Afghan feature film made since the end of the Taliban regime, which was shot by the Afghan director, Siddiq Barmak, in November 2002 in Kabul. The Camera d’Or jury in Cannes gave »OSAMA« a special mention and it also won the French art-house cinema prize. The film is based on fact and features a girl who was dressed up by her mother and grandmother as a boy so that she could move freely about the streets to look for work during the time of the Taliban regime. Her attempt to live as a boy in male-dominated Taliban society is fraught with danger, since she risks being discovered at any moment. 

»OSAMA« is followed by a screening of the documentary video, »THE INVASION FILE«, which Siddiq Barmak shot in 1997 when using his camera to aid the cause of the Mujaheddin under Ahmad Shah Massoud. 

Siddiq Barmak studied film in Moscow in the mid-1980s. He returned to Afghanistan in 1987, joining the Mujaheddin in the north of the country in 1989. After a brief stay in Pakistan he returned to Kabul in 1992, becoming director of the state production company and film library, Afghan Film. He left Afghanistan again after the Taliban militia conquered Kabul in 1996 and settled in Pakistan. He joined Massoud’s troops and filmed combat scenes with his video camera. After the transitional government took office he returned to Kabul, where he now works as the head of Afghan Film.

Joining in a discussion with the director, Siddiq Barmak, will be Sandra Schäfer [project manager of »Kabul/Teheran 1979ff«], who is currently working on a film project entitled Makhmalbaf’s Black Box, and the curator, Jochen Becker [metroZones in Ersatzstadt, Berlin].

OSAMA marks the start of a film and lecture series called »Kabul/Teheran 1979ff« as part of the ErsatzStadt-Projekt at the Volksbühne Theatre in Berlin.