Forum of Independents - Competition 2010 / Four Lions / United Kingdom 2010
Did you ever expect to laugh at a terrorist attack? A sophisticated, pitch-black, satirical comedy about whether it’s possible to be a mujahid with a box on your head, whether it’s better to blow up a mosque or a condom-selling drugstore, and whether one can reliably kill Osama bin Laden.... The movie screened at Sundance.
A group of would-be terrorists plans an attack that should spill plenty of blood. But they just can’t decide whose blood it should be. The film’s strength, aside from elements of black humor, lies in the ambiguity and subversiveness it creates through the use of stereotypes of Muslims, British politicians, and all manner of fanatics. Suicide bombings are here talked about just as ingenuously as if discussing The Lion King. Laughs are generated through a wide assortment of exotic insults, situations packing an effective punch, and characters delineated with precision. The movie presents the latter as more a threat to themselves than to British society. Although the viewer finds himself chuckling at preparations for a terrorist operation, the laughter is rightfully accompanied with a tingling down the spine. This original, daring movie, replete with humorous situations that are in no way disrespectful, provokes a variety of questions but one stands out above the rest: how fine is the line between a martyr and a dolt?
101 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Christopher Morris
/ Screenplay Christopher Morris, Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain
/ Dir. of Photography Lol Crawley
/ Editor Billy Sneddon
/ Producer Mark Herbert, Derrin Schlesinger
/ Production Warp FIlms
/ Cast Riz Ahmed, Arsher Ali, Nigel Lindsay, Kayvan Novak, Adeel Akhtar
/ Contact GoodFellas, Hollywood Classic Entertainment, 35 MM
/ Distributor 35 MM
www: www.four-lions.co.uk
Christopher Morris (b. 1965, Bristol, Great Britain), nicknamed the media terrorist, gained fame as a screenwriter, director, and star of television shows whose satire and surreality are in the best tradition of British comedy (e.g. the role of Denholm in the series "The IT Crowd”). The origins of Morris’s humor go back to the years when he worked for BBC Radio Bristol and Greater London Radio. The on-air program "On the Hour” spawned a television news parody entitled "The Day Today” (1994), a series which earned him a BAFTA Award. The series "Brass Eye” (1997) presented seven fictional TV news reports, and after the program ended, Morris published his own obituary in The Guardian. In 2002 he shot a short film for the prominent music label Warp entitled My Wrongs #8245–8249 & 117, winning a BAFTA Award for his efforts. Four Lions is his writer-director feature debut.
GoodFellas
65 rue de Dunkerque, 75009, Paris
France
Phone: +33 143 132 164
E-mail: [email protected]
Hollywood Classic Entertainment
Psohlavců 8, 147 00, Praha 4
Czech Republic
Phone: +420 226 224 111
Fax: +420 226 224 110
E-mail: [email protected]
35 MM
Psohlavců 8, 147 00, Praha 4
Czech Republic
Phone: +420 244 464 135
Fax: +420 244 464 395
E-mail: [email protected]
Esther Devos
Sales Agent
Lucie Mazůrková
Distributor
Marta Vaněčková
Distributor
Christopher Morris
Film Director
Michal Kroupa
Distributor, Distributor
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