East is East
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | East is East |
| Original title | East Is East |
| Country of production | Great Britain |
| original language | English (partly also Urdu ) |
| Publishing year | 1999 |
| length | 92 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Damien O'Donnell |
| script | Ayub Khan-Din |
| music | Deborah Mollison |
| camera | Brian Tufano |
| cut | Michael Parker |
| occupation | |
| |
The British comedy East is East (original title: East Is East ) draws its comedy from the conflict between the western and the Pakistani- Muslim traditions. Directed by Damien O'Donnell in 1999, the story is based on the eponymous drama by Ayub Khan-Din , which was first performed at the Royal Court Theater in 1996 . The title comes from the poem The Ballad Of East And West by Rudyard Kipling .
action
The film is set in 1971 in Salford , then still part of Lancashire , a smaller town in northern England. The focus is on the bicultural English family Khan. The father, George, comes from what is now Pakistan , is a Muslim and has been married to Ella, a British woman of Irish origin, for 25 years . They have seven children, six sons and one daughter. Family conflicts soon become apparent as George wants to preserve the traditions of his country of origin while his children want to live according to British culture.
When the children of the family take part in a Christian procession , they have to hide from the father who is watching the parade. The eldest son Nazir abandons the marriage arranged by his father at the last second (because he is, as it later turns out, homosexual ), and is rejected by the father for it. It also turns out that the youngest son Sajid is not circumcised ; at the insistence of the father and against Sajid's will this is made up for. When the children discover that George is now planning an arranged wedding with two not particularly attractive daughters of a wealthy Pakistani from Bradford for two more of his sons, Abdul and Tariq, without their knowledge , Tariq destroys the wedding clothes that George had secretly bought. Until then, only the devout Maneer had always taken a conservative stance and tried to hide the damage. However, George finds him with the torn clothes and becomes violent, mostly because Maneer refuses to betray his siblings. In this way he distances himself from the father and the traditions. Ella wants to protect her son from the father's assault and intervenes, whereupon George hits her in the face. When the intended future wives and their families visit the house of the Khans, things finally escalate. It becomes evident that Khan's children have assimilated into British culture, and the families of the possible wives leave the Khan's home in indignation. When the argument flares up again between George and Ella, George becomes violent again towards her. The children prevent this and now all clearly take the mother's side. George leaves the apartment but seems to want to change for the family.
Reviews
In its 2001 film review, the Stuttgarter Zeitung judged: “ In O'Donnell's clumsy production, however, every nuance is lost. And what is left on the surface is by no means a call to tolerance, but a self-satisfied celebration of the vital British pro culture that is declared the measure of all things. "
In a review of the follow-up film “West is West”, however, Dirk Sander explicitly referred back to East is East in the Spiegel in 2012 and described this film as “a small work of art” that nobody expected. East is East is “funny, touching and tragic. But above all honest. "
Awards
East is East won the British Academy Film Award in 2000 in the category Best British Film and was nominated for five other awards (Best Film, Best Actor - Om Puri, Best Actress - Linda Bassett, Best Adapted Screenplay, Carl Foreman Award for Best Young Talent - Ayub Khan-Din).
Others
The scenes from Bradford in Southall were shot at Ealing Studios , in the Openshaw district of Manchester .
East is East was first shown in German cinemas in May 2000. In autumn 2010, a follow-up film entitled West is West was presented at the film festivals in Toronto and London , which was released in English cinemas from February 2011 and in German cinemas from June 2012. Another film about the Khan family is planned (as of October 2010).
Web links
- Film description on www.kinofenster.de
- East is East in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Film reviews and information on the production staff ( memento from May 20, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) in the Dirk Jasper FilmLexikon
Individual evidence
- ↑ Papa from Pakistan ( memento from October 8, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ). In: Stuttgarter Zeitung , September 11, 2001. Retrieved October 8, 2013.
- ↑ Multicultural comedy "West is West": cliché is cliché In: Der Spiegel , June 14, 2012. Accessed October 8, 2013.
- ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166175/locations?ref_=tt_dt_dt
- ↑ West is West in the Internet Movie Database . Retrieved October 8, 2013
- ↑ BBC Manchester October 20, 2010: West is West follow-up confirmed by Salford film writer . Retrieved October 8, 2013.