Irish Film Institute -FOUR LIONS

FOUR LIONS

Director: CHRIS MORRIS

94 minutes| U.K.| 2010| Colour| D-Cinema


Chris Morris, for years a notorious provocateur on British TV, will doubtless cause an instant furore with this first cinema offering, a comedy about English- Muslim suicide bombers. Yes, four bumbling, amusing, and obviously deluded terrorists, led by the charismatically sincere Riz Ahmed, who target the London Marathon with explosives underneath their ‘fun run’ costumes. If that sounds shocking, then it’s meant to be, since Morris wholly embraces the notion that comedy’s not only there to make us laugh (which the film certainly does), but to take us out of our comfort zone, delivering telling moments when we’re not really sure if we should be chuckling or simply aghast. Always respectful of Islam itself, this is above all an investigation of how the hermetic arguments of extremism detach conviction from humanity. And it’s played with a fearless sense of conceptual absurdity distinctly reminiscent of – dare we say it? – the Pythons’ Life of Brian. See it and make up your own mind. (Notes by Trevor Johnston)

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