Four Lions - My Review!

Four Lions tells the story of a group of British jihadists who push their abstract dreams of glory to the breaking point.

I couldn’t wait to see this film because I’m a sucker for anything controversial and I knew that with Chris Morris behind it, I woudn’t be disappointed!

This was such a brilliant movie!

I can completely understand the controversy because in theory the plotline for this film should make for a tragedy, a thriller or a gripping drama but certainly not a comedy!  Morris causes controversy because he manages to humanise a group of British Jihadi Islamist terrorists as they plot how and where to be suicide bombers. What makes it even more controversial is that Morris makes it funny!  It becomes almost Benny Hill’ish in places or even like watching Basil Fawlty running around, making a tit out of himself falling over and messing things up every 2 minutes.  There are so many laugh out loud moments and at the same time you can’t help but wonder should you be laughing at all.

The cast were brilliant and timed each comic moment perfectly. The two stand out performances for me were Riz Ahmed (who recently starred in ‘The Centurian’, see review) as ‘Omar’ and Kayvan Novak as ‘Waj’.  They portrayed two idealistic young terrorists who really believe in their plans for the “greater good”.  We even get a glimpse into Omar’s family life and it’s almost scary how normal it is for Omar and his beautiful young wife to sit down and talk about his mission.  His plans to kill and be killed!  They talk about it just as normal as me and my husband would discuss what we are having for dinner.  Its weird.

This is why this film should be credited and applauded because it raises issues.  Issues surrounding a lack of education and understanding, religious issues and political ignorance.  OK these issues have all been raised many times before but usually in such a way were they are designed to be clever, moral, ethical and almost preachy.  However this film was set in present day Britain, it was done in a comical way but there was still that underlying knowing that it could be based on a truth.  That’s what makes this film controversial for me – it’s a true scary comedy.

I really enjoyed this film and I think Chirs Morris is a really clever man.

Rating: 8.5/10