Terrorist comedy Four Lions hits Sundance
Story by Jack Foley
A NEW British comedy about a group of aspiring suicide bombers has received its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival to mixed early reviews.
Four Lions was created by satirist Chris Morris, the man behind Channel 4’s Brass Eye, and is described as “a funny, thrilling comedy that illuminates modern jihadism through the prism of farce”.
Set in a British city, the film follows four men as they embark on a secret plan.
Omar (Riz Ahmed) is disillusioned about the treatment of muslims around the world and is determined to become a soldier. This is the most exciting idea Waj (Kayvan Novak) has ever heard.
Better still it’s a no brainer because Omar does his thinking for him. Opposed to Omar and everyone else on earth is the white islamic convert Barry (Nigel Lindsay). He’d realize he joined the cell to channel his nihilism – if he had half the self knowledge of a duck.
Faisal (Adeel Akhtar) is the odd man out. He can make a bomb – but he can’t blow himself up just now coz his sick dad has “started eating newspaper”. Instead he’s training crows to fly bombs through windows.
This is what Omar has to deal with. They must strike a decisive blow on their own turf but can any of them strike a match without punching himself in the face?
Morris told Sundance viewers that the film shows “the Dad’s Army side to terrorism” – but early reviews have been careful to heap too much praise.
The Guardian newspaper, for instance, wrote that “as a satire on terror, Four Lions seems to be a missed opportunity precisely because of its tonal shifts”.
While Hollywood trade publication Screen International predicted that it would offend many who see it – or even don’t!
“It will offend the British, it will offend Muslims, it will offend jihadists,” it wrote. “But if satire doesn’t offend people, it is not satire.”Film magazine Empire was more positive, however, opining that the movie “articulates an inclusive viewpoint” in which the “notion of ‘them and us’ does not just boil down to race: It boils down to them, the idiots, and us, the people who only see horror in extremism”.
Morris has refused requests for interviews but told the audience at Sundance following the premiere that his film was inspired by an account of a botched terror attack he read five years ago.
“It was like an Ealing comedy… I felt there was a missing link and these guys were pretty foolish,” he said.