Finally a movie about a strong Muslim female. Although Yasmin is NOT a Muslima in the beginning of the movie. She is only a Muslima by name, by birth in a Muslim family. Only after facing hardships she becomes more interested in her religion.
She reminded me a bit of myself, I'm also a Foreigner born in a Western country, having issues with the Westerners as well as with my own people. But on the other hand, she is very different from me. She is so strong, while it took me years to become strong and dare to do what I wanted to do.
Apart from that, I can easily identify with her balancing more to the westerners in the beginning, she tries to fit in at work for example, with her British colleagues, but isn't really accepted. She is always the Foreigner in their eyes, no matter what.
Then she comes home and enters a very different world. At home her family culture is dominant. Different believes, different values. She isn't too pleased with them. She doesn't see the beauty of her parents culture, of their heritage, because she didn't really get a chance to experience it's beauty, she has mostly experienced the negative sides of her culture so she isn't very happy at home.
She really wants to embrace the western life style, but then something horrible happens, the attack on September 11th of the Twin Towers. Suddenly, the innocent teasing colleagues, drastically change their behavior towards her, now they are truly nasty. This really hurts her. What is even more ridiculous is, that Yasmins boss does nothing about it and instead wants Yasmin to take some time off work until those emotions die down and also claims that Yasmin is making to big a deal out of this! And that part is a very important aspect of this movie. It shows how wrong many non-Muslims were in their accusations towards ALL the Muslims while the attack was the action of a small group of mislead "Muslims". (Islam doesn't allow to kill women and children, elder people, destroy houses and buildings, crop, etc. etc. even in war time) When, for example, a Christian or just a white person blows up something or does some other horrible deed, we don't expect ALL the white people or all the Christians to apologize for that, do we?! This movie shows that treatment, those underlying cooking emotions of the western people against Muslims which suddenly reached the boiling point and overcooked after September 11th. That attack on the Twin Towers was an excuse for many people to openly mistreat, attack, say nasty things about and to Muslims all over the world.
Yes, that attack was a horrible deed, many innocent people died, both in the planes and the Twin Towers plus surrounding area, but what is just as horrible is the reaction that followed it towards ALL the Muslims. Most Muslims were horrified, shocked by that vicious attack, yet they became the targets of different kinds of attacks themselves.
They did a great job in showing all that with this movie, the inner struggles of a person between two cultures and how people change, how hatred creates more hatred. Dialogue between different groups, races, cultures is very important so people can understand each other instead.
Yasmin has a kid brother, he is a very western boy, completely non-Muslim, worse than his sister in that aspect, to the point he actually sins with girls and smokes and deals drugs. Then, hypocrite as he is, he goes to the mosque with his father to call the Azaan and pray...
Also there is a story line between a love which never really happens between Yasmin and her British colleague. He likes her, but she keeps her distance, waiting for her divorce, she is married to her cousin from Pakistan and waits for the moment he will have papers which will allow him to stay in England, then she will be free from him. Her colleague doesn't know about that, she just tells him she has some family business to take care off and he has to wait.
The experiences with the British authorities however change Yasmin as well as her kid brother who becomes very religious and decides to go to a training camp in Pakistan to become a fighter (Yasmin, her kid brother, her father, her husband along with her colleague who was in her home by coincidence, are all arrested and accused of being links to terrorist groups...), in the end Yasmin starts to lean more towards her own culture and becomes interested once again in her own religion. When she runs into her colleague in a shopping mall, he first doesn't recognize her because she is wearing shalwar kameez, then he asks her to join him in the pub, she refuses because she is thinking of going to the mosque and asks him to join her instead. He refuses and their ways are separated.
So, there are many interesting story lines in this movie.
It shows the struggles and strength of females, the struggles of Muslims in the west, the struggle of children being torn between two different worlds they both belong to, it shows discrimination of Foreigners and particularly Muslims, it shows how that discrimination and racism worsened after the September 11th attacks, it shows the clash between the older and the younger generation, both their power struggles, it shows how normal and even very free people can turn into possible fanatics.
It's a great movie which, with all these different aspects, never becomes cliché or lecturing. One would think, with so many things going on, it would become messy, but it isn't. It's very well done and I recommend it to anyone from any culture.
She reminded me a bit of myself, I'm also a Foreigner born in a Western country, having issues with the Westerners as well as with my own people. But on the other hand, she is very different from me. She is so strong, while it took me years to become strong and dare to do what I wanted to do.
Apart from that, I can easily identify with her balancing more to the westerners in the beginning, she tries to fit in at work for example, with her British colleagues, but isn't really accepted. She is always the Foreigner in their eyes, no matter what.
Then she comes home and enters a very different world. At home her family culture is dominant. Different believes, different values. She isn't too pleased with them. She doesn't see the beauty of her parents culture, of their heritage, because she didn't really get a chance to experience it's beauty, she has mostly experienced the negative sides of her culture so she isn't very happy at home.
She really wants to embrace the western life style, but then something horrible happens, the attack on September 11th of the Twin Towers. Suddenly, the innocent teasing colleagues, drastically change their behavior towards her, now they are truly nasty. This really hurts her. What is even more ridiculous is, that Yasmins boss does nothing about it and instead wants Yasmin to take some time off work until those emotions die down and also claims that Yasmin is making to big a deal out of this! And that part is a very important aspect of this movie. It shows how wrong many non-Muslims were in their accusations towards ALL the Muslims while the attack was the action of a small group of mislead "Muslims". (Islam doesn't allow to kill women and children, elder people, destroy houses and buildings, crop, etc. etc. even in war time) When, for example, a Christian or just a white person blows up something or does some other horrible deed, we don't expect ALL the white people or all the Christians to apologize for that, do we?! This movie shows that treatment, those underlying cooking emotions of the western people against Muslims which suddenly reached the boiling point and overcooked after September 11th. That attack on the Twin Towers was an excuse for many people to openly mistreat, attack, say nasty things about and to Muslims all over the world.
Yes, that attack was a horrible deed, many innocent people died, both in the planes and the Twin Towers plus surrounding area, but what is just as horrible is the reaction that followed it towards ALL the Muslims. Most Muslims were horrified, shocked by that vicious attack, yet they became the targets of different kinds of attacks themselves.
They did a great job in showing all that with this movie, the inner struggles of a person between two cultures and how people change, how hatred creates more hatred. Dialogue between different groups, races, cultures is very important so people can understand each other instead.
Yasmin has a kid brother, he is a very western boy, completely non-Muslim, worse than his sister in that aspect, to the point he actually sins with girls and smokes and deals drugs. Then, hypocrite as he is, he goes to the mosque with his father to call the Azaan and pray...
Also there is a story line between a love which never really happens between Yasmin and her British colleague. He likes her, but she keeps her distance, waiting for her divorce, she is married to her cousin from Pakistan and waits for the moment he will have papers which will allow him to stay in England, then she will be free from him. Her colleague doesn't know about that, she just tells him she has some family business to take care off and he has to wait.
The experiences with the British authorities however change Yasmin as well as her kid brother who becomes very religious and decides to go to a training camp in Pakistan to become a fighter (Yasmin, her kid brother, her father, her husband along with her colleague who was in her home by coincidence, are all arrested and accused of being links to terrorist groups...), in the end Yasmin starts to lean more towards her own culture and becomes interested once again in her own religion. When she runs into her colleague in a shopping mall, he first doesn't recognize her because she is wearing shalwar kameez, then he asks her to join him in the pub, she refuses because she is thinking of going to the mosque and asks him to join her instead. He refuses and their ways are separated.
So, there are many interesting story lines in this movie.
It shows the struggles and strength of females, the struggles of Muslims in the west, the struggle of children being torn between two different worlds they both belong to, it shows discrimination of Foreigners and particularly Muslims, it shows how that discrimination and racism worsened after the September 11th attacks, it shows the clash between the older and the younger generation, both their power struggles, it shows how normal and even very free people can turn into possible fanatics.
It's a great movie which, with all these different aspects, never becomes cliché or lecturing. One would think, with so many things going on, it would become messy, but it isn't. It's very well done and I recommend it to anyone from any culture.