We are four Lions.
2010-05-07
$3.9M
97 min
Four Lions tells the story of a group of British jihadists who push their abstract dreams of glory to the breaking point. As the wheels fly off, and their competing ideologies clash, what emerges is an emotionally engaging (and entirely plausible) farce.
As recent examples of British cinema satire go, this is one of the better ones. It follows the antics of four Muslims who are fed up with the way the are being treated. It's "Omar" (Riz Ahmed) who comes up with a cunning plan that involves them trekking to Pakistan where they will learns all the ninja skills of the modern-day jihadist! The easily led "Waj" (Kayvan Novak) is up for it but convert "Barry" (Nigel Lindsay) isn't so keen and "Faisal" (Adeel Akhtar) is way more worried that his dad is having some sort of nervous incident. It's this latter man who might be more use, though - he does know how to make things explode and hits on the idea of using birds to do their bombing for them - a new slant on a dive bomber! Anyway, with all this to contend with we get to sit on the sidelines and smile as "Omar" struggles to get his "cell" to achieve anything that doesn't actually involve them inflicting way more harm on each other than on anyone or anything else. If this were ever to be a manual for a would-be terrorist, then we could all sleep very safely in our beds. The writing is pithy and entertaining, as is the dynamic between these hapless dopes who probably couldn't simultaneously light four birthday cake candles much less anything more perilous. It doesn't hang about, has it's tongue in it's cheek and sends up not just the world of would be fanaticism but also the ridiculousness of the politics of irrational hate and division. The ending has something really quite fitting about it too - birds coming home to roost - and the whole thing is an engagingly enjoyable observation of how effective humour can be at detoxifying a situation.
