Four Lions

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Movie
German title Four Lions
Original title Four Lions
Country of production Great Britain
original language English , Urdu
Publishing year 2010
length 97 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Chris Morris
script Chris Morris
Jesse Armstrong
Sam Bain
production Mark Herbert
Derrin Schlesinger
camera Lol Crawley
cut Billy Sneddon
occupation

Four Lions is a British film satire from director Chris Morris from the year 2010 , by an Islamist terrorist cell in Sheffield , is, England.

action

The film is about young Muslim friends Omar, Waj, Faisal and Barry, the latter being an English converted. You live in Sheffield and plan on your own initiative to fight the holy war against the infidels . To this end, Omar and Waj visit a terror camp in Pakistan , where, among other things, they accidentally transport members of the jihadists to the afterlife while attempting to shoot down an American drone with the aid of an FFV AT 4 .

During her absence, Hassan joins the cell. The group begins sourcing bleach to make explosives . However, the friends disagree about the target of the attack: Barry wants to blow up a mosque in order to "radicalize the moderates", which Omar describes as idiotic. Faisal suggests a store belonging to the British drugstore chain Boots as a target, which Omar also rejects, as it is not a worthwhile target. Hassan brings the unsuspecting neighbor Alice into the hiding place, which is why the group believes they have been exposed and transports the unpredictable explosives in shopping bags to another warehouse. Faisal, who tried to teach crows to sacrifice himself as a suicide bomber, dies when he trips over a sheep with the explosives. This leads to an argument in the remaining group, which subsequently split up but later reunites, with Omar suggesting the upcoming London Marathon as a target.

In costumes, the group hides the explosives and prepares for the attack. Waj expresses doubts about the righteousness of the scheme, but Omar convinces him to go ahead with the operation. Hassan loses his nerve and tries to alert the police present, but Barry detonates Hassan's bomb and blows him up. The police are now looking for the remaining three assassins. Omar realizes that he has persuaded Waj to do something that Waj does not want to do and now tries to dissuade him from the action. The snipers attempt to shoot Omar, but meet an innocent bystander wearing a Wookiee costume. Omar manages to contact Waj on his cell phone, but is attacked by Barry, who swallows the SIM card . However, Barry threatens to suffocate on the map, which is why a passer -by performs the Heimlich maneuver and detonates Barry's bomb.

Waj is cornered by the police and takes those in a kebab shop hostage. Omar picks up a cell phone and tries to stop Waj from detonating his bomb, but is interrupted by the police, who storm the store and mistakenly shoot a hostage. The confused Waj detonates his bomb and destroys the shop. The deeply dismayed Omar then goes into an empty boat store and blows himself up. It is revealed that the police arrested Omar's devout but peaceful brother as a terrorist and kidnapped him to Egypt , that the police denied guilt for the shooting of the bystander, and that Omar and Waj in Pakistan tried to shoot down the drone, Osama bin Laden have killed.

publication

The film was first shown to the public at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for the festival's World Cinema Narrative Prize (international feature film). It was released in the UK on May 7, 2010. In the United States, after some difficulties in finding a distributor due to the controversial subject, the film was released in an abridged version on November 5th. The German premiere was at the Fantasy Filmfest 2010 , and the film was released in German cinemas on April 21, 2011. In this context, the CSU Bundestag member Stephan Mayer expressed the wish for a postponement, as the film "poured oil on the fire" due to the current threat of terrorism and Islamists could use it as another motive for attacks.

The film has been available in English on DVD and Blu-ray since August 30, 2010 . The German DVD and Blu-ray were released on September 30, 2011.

Reviews

“The director does not denounce the Muslim faith, he presents religious, racist and sexual clichés and prejudices of all kinds. He doesn't demonize his characters, but portrays them [...] as increasingly ambivalent characters with growing conflicts of conscience, which, not least because of their weaknesses and contradictions, appear funny and ultimately tragic. One cannot blame Morris' film debut, which was mostly shot with a hand-held camera, for trivializing the subject, as it repeatedly emphasizes the main problem of suicide bombings, the killing of innocent people. With all serious statements, Four Lions is, at least in the original version, first and foremost very, very funny. "

- critic.de

“Satire turns into tragedy, slapstick changes with horror: The nice fanatics next door are driving the madness to the extreme. Morgan and his three co-authors combine Monty Python's over-the-top provocation with the rabid jokes of Sacha Baron Cohen. You can find this film tasteless, you can question its bitter consistency, but one thing cannot be denied: the black humor of the English simply doesn't stop at anything. Conclusion: brilliant satire about terror and extremism, extremely funny, but at the same time oppressive and scary. "

- cinema.de

“As a 'terror comedy' balancing along the border with cynicism, the film occasionally develops apt black humor as a farce about fanaticism and hysteria. Overall, however, the satire about the phenomenon of fundamentalist terror too often sticks to the questionable joke about bodies flying in the air instead of dealing with the background. "

- Lexicon of international film

“[...] 'Four Lions' in no way makes fun of Muslims and should therefore contain less potential for conflict than feared. What Morris delivers, on the other hand, is a pitch-black satire, which ultimately also holds up the mirror to society in a revealing way and shows that the fear that has been stoked is completely misguided and is being fought by the authorities with downright absurd methods. "

- filmstarts.de

Awards

Four Lions won the Fresh Blood Audience Award at the Fantasy Filmfest 2010, which is awarded for presented debut or second films. Two BAFTA nominations followed in 2011 (Best British Film, Carl Foreman Award for Best Young Talent - Chris Morris). Four Lions won the BAFTA for the best newcomer .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Approval for Four Lions . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , March 2011 (PDF; test number: 126 947 K).
  2. ↑ Los Angeles Times article on the 2010 Sundance Film Festival , latimesblogs.latimes.com
  3. ↑ Thomas Heise : Four Lions. CSU wants to ban Islamist satire . In: Spiegel Online . January 9, 2011 ( spiegel.de ).
  4. ↑ Birte Lüdeking: Four Lions. critic.de, accessed on September 13, 2013 .
  5. ^ Four Lions. cinema.de, accessed on November 21, 2015 .
  6. ^ Four Lions. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  7. ↑ Jens Hamp: Four Lions. filmstarts.de, accessed on November 21, 2015 .
  8. ↑ WINNER 2010 - Fresh Blood Award on the official website of the Fantasy Filmfest