This was fine. The filmmaker, a Muslim himself, makes no bones about the fact that he has a specific perspective on the fallout from the Salman Rushdie "Satanic Verses" fatwa affair - he has the stones to put that right in the documentary itself. You don't need to agree with him.
He speaks to a woman from the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, a former National Front guy, former jihadis, a guy who burned Rushdie's books during protests in Britain decades ago. There's some man-on-the-street interviews in Parliament Square as well. He gets some mild responses and some angry ones, which I think is what he was fishing for (better television, I guess).
Far, far stronger than this is the analogous BBC radio podcast "Fatwa," 10 episodes of 10 minutes each. It deals more with the history surrounding the Satanic Verses controversy, with the Muslim immigrant experience in Britain, radicalization, cultural isolation, racism, politics etc. It's far more interesting than this, which was produced by Vice Media - and, unfortunately, feels too much like one of their faux edgy shaky-cam YouTube videos.
He speaks to a woman from the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, a former National Front guy, former jihadis, a guy who burned Rushdie's books during protests in Britain decades ago. There's some man-on-the-street interviews in Parliament Square as well. He gets some mild responses and some angry ones, which I think is what he was fishing for (better television, I guess).
Far, far stronger than this is the analogous BBC radio podcast "Fatwa," 10 episodes of 10 minutes each. It deals more with the history surrounding the Satanic Verses controversy, with the Muslim immigrant experience in Britain, radicalization, cultural isolation, racism, politics etc. It's far more interesting than this, which was produced by Vice Media - and, unfortunately, feels too much like one of their faux edgy shaky-cam YouTube videos.