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From Lion To Party Puffin – Four Lions Reviewed

Published Fri, 30 Apr 2010 06:46:23 -0500

"You cannot win an argument just by being right"

Four Lions is a comedy about Islamic fundamentalist terrorists.

If that sentence fills you will utter repulsion, then you won't be able to sit through the first five minutes. But by the sound of it you probably should.

Chris Morris has a history of being on the very cutting edge of social and political commentary from his radio, TV and online projects. From childish descriptions of a vision of Jesus Christ with two penises pissing on an assembled crowd on the biggest radio station in the country the afternoon before Christmas Day, broadcasting a hacked-down version of the Diana funeral speeches, persuading celebrities and politicians to support and promote clearly fictitious charities or causes, parodying the media treatment of sex, crime, drugs and more controversially paedophilia, or finding new ways to celebrate 9/11 in fashion and nightclubs… yeah, he does that kind of thing. And now he does this thing, a new feature film, directed and written by Morris alongside the Peep Show writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong and The Thick Of It writer Sam Blackwell..

"Rubber dinghy rapids!"

Now there have been a number of terrorist attacks in Britain over the last ten years from Al Qaeda-related groups. I was on the commute into London when the tube and bus bombs started going off. Had to walk to work and everything, it was terrible. But it wasn't the first time, we'd had the IRA doing similar stuff a decade and more before.

But what was more striking was the fact that these terrorists were British. Often with broad Yorkshire accents, living in the places I grew up in. And it's that juxtaposition that has seemed to give Chris Morris the greatest scope to play in with this film. He's undertaken years of research, talking and living with the affected communities to find examples of the stupidity of humanity that inhabits every aspect of our actions, even when committing acts of mass murder.

"As I understand it, we shot the right man, but the wrong man blew up"

The actors are superb. We see a number of Morris regulars in small roles, such as Julia Davis, Kevin Eldon and Darren Boyd. But the central characters are relatively unknown. Waj is played by Kayvan Novak, better known as the prankster Fonejacker, who always disguises himself anyway. Riz Ahmed had a lead role in Chris Morris-associate Charlie Brooker's TV show Dead Set. Nigel Lyndsey was in Chris Morris-associate Armando Iannucci's Shows. Adeel Akhtar steals the show as Fessel, and has hardly been in anything previously.

We see the training camps in Pakistan (filmed in Spain), wide open mountainous land, set against the rolling green hills above Yorkshire ex-mining towns. We see the harsh, focused, trained militancy of the Al Queda soldiers against the rather pathetic, weak, easily distracted British half hearted attempts to live up to that vision.

And so it becomes a comedy of having aspirations above your ability to achieve them, half way between Dad's Army and The Office. But those aspirations, killing hundreds of people and yourself at the same time, are horrific. Especially when they are using children's social networking site Party Puffin to communicate terrorist strategy across the world.

"That's a fucked up rabbit"

This is coupled with possibly a far more controversial aspect of the film, when audiences see it, the complete blinkered tolerant mindset of the British, unable to see or recognise clear signs of terrorist cells under their noses. There's a feeling that this film could cause people to suspect every Muslim of being a terrorist, some kind of wake-up call for a too-tolerant Britain.

Except that the film doesn't take sides so much as declare that the whole thing is fucked up. There are no answers the film doesn't give any, it just throws it's hands in the air going "what the fuck?" The British police are incompetent, the public are stupid and the terrorists are just as stupid – but with bombs. And while blissful ignorance is not the answer, neither is the opposite – a credits sequence regarding international territory and a Stockwell style response from police is also just as laughable.

"Fucking Mr Beans!"

And so while this is a dark comedy in line with recent films such as The Men Who Stare The Goats and In The Loop, they were removed from everyday concerns. This is not. And the terrorist theme to the film starts to do something very special indeed. The film starts funny and the audience laughs along – but soon the horror of the implications become realer and realer. And the film, though still just as funny, generates fewer and fewer laughs, leaving the audience trapped, not knowing how to react. Until a certain scene with police snipers and the London Marathon kicks off and the audience is rocked into laughing uproariously again. This is like a master orchestrator of comedy, playing with your emotions, and twisting you like you're strapped to the front of a menopausal roller coaster ride.

"It's me prayer bear – 'ee does me prayers!"

But for all the controversy which will spill out about this film,. it's a very human story. The filming is very relaxed, downplayed, no cameras rushing about, even when people run it's in a very ridiculous fashion. It touches on Of Mice And Men with a brotherly relationship. It feels like a Mike Leigh film on the surface. And follow with our hearts people driven to do something very silly indeed – not so much by fundamentalist teaching, but by one upmanship, friendship, duty, loyalty, depression and inevitability. Far more human traits that ideological ones.

It's a comedy, but one that hurts, that takes large buckets of pathos mixed with custard before tipping it over our heads.

"One sheep was blown up in the making of this film"

Four Lions is released in the UK on May 7th. Whatever the results of the General Election, you might need a good laugh. There is no date for US or Canadian release.

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