Four Lions

Hopscotch / Roadshow Entertainment

R4 DVD

Omar and his friends Waj, Fessal and Barry want to become suicide bombers. They are British Pakistanis living in Sheffield, not normally seen as a target environment for jihadis. Barry, the unofficial head of the group, is a self-important control freak who is also a bumbling incompetent. He is not Pakistani but talks the political talk. He can turn any problem into an anti-Jewish tirade. When his car breaks down due to his mechanical incompetence, he rages “Jews invented spark plugs to control global traffic.” Waj, Omar’s best friend, is a bit dim – his plan involves fitting bombs to crows, getting them to fly to the target and then detonating their bomb by telephone. The result is a bit rough on the crow. Fessal is not particularly bright but is perhaps the most rational after Omar. He makes the bombs.

Omar’s wife is in agreement with her husband for some reason – perhaps because it annoys Omar’s brother who is a fanatical Moslem to the point that he locks his wife in a cupboard for disobedience or insolence. Even his young son agrees with his father’s ambition – “You’ll be in Heaven before your head hits the ceiling”. They both agree that Omar can do anything he sets his mind to.

Omar plans to bomb the London Marathon although there is conflict in the group as to whether there are better targets, like a mosque. This was Barry’s suggestion. Although he describes himself as a Moslem he won’t enter a mosque. Omar has to point out that this will be hard to explain to Allah when they get to Paradise. In the face of Barry’s loud confrontational style the leadership gradually and unofficially lands on Omar.

Jihad is not a popular subject. It is almost taboo to mention it. By raising questions about the jihadis and their motivations this film brings the subject into the open where it can be examined and discussed. By doing so in a humorous way it is non-threatening and tends not to arouse the conventional stereotype reactions.

Don’t think that this film is all comedy. Looking deeper we see Barry as the bigoted racist secure in his ignorance. Waj is a caricature of the terrorist bomber, the one we would like to think will blow himself up rather than innocent people. When he does manage to blow himself up by tripping over a sheep, though, it is rather a sad point. As an individual he was a nice enough guy, even likable. Omar is not the dedicated anti-British terrorist of the newspapers either, just a man who feels he must do what he has to do to benefit his people.

The comedy is not at the expense of Muslims, terrorists or British. It walks a thin line between lampooning these people and trying to explain what their motives are. The film will probably attract censure because it humanises the terrorists, although it does ridicule the motives of suicide bombers generally. It will probably attract censure from Moslems because it will be seen to lampoon them, although it really doesn’t. If anything is lampooned in the film it is the attitudes of stupid, bigoted people – on both sides.

It is a very dark comedy on a very tragic problem but doesn’t pull any punches and gets its message across without being too offensive.

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