Is he a martyr or is he a Jalfrezi?

FOUR LIONS (2010)

Amid the heated controversy surrounding the recent opposition to Park51 – or the “ground zero mosque” – a number of PSAs, news columns and reports have spawned quite notably throughout the media. Amongst these was a piece on NPR’s All Things Considered that touched on the growth of anti-Muslim sentiment and the deterioration of Muslim/non-Muslim relations in America. The saddest part of the special was not learning how widespread anti-Muslim sentiment has escalated across the country, but hearing Muslims testify to the most absurd misconceptions they encounter every day, and how Muslims and their creed have been misconceived since the days of the Puritans. So when I stumbled upon satirist Chris Morris’ latest farce Four Lions, I was both skeptical and intrigued in seeing how he portrayed a scatterbrained group of radical Muslims living in London. Needless to say, while a bit heart-rending, Morris’ satire does not disappoint.

The film’s title derives from The Lion King, as implied when Omar – a British jihadist, and our hero – ad-libs his own rendition of the Disney classic to his son. He uses Simba as an archetype for glory and dreams of one day realizing his own ambition of martyrdom. Determined to have his name echo through history, Omar seeks to be radicalized and then upgraded to a suicide bomber via training camp. Of course to achieve such an abstract goal he forms a crack team of fellow Muslims; including the blond-bearded, blue-eyed convert Barry (Nigel Lindsay). Idiocy ensues as the group’s conflicting ideologies ultimately foil their terrorist plot.

Although Four Lions makes light of an arguably taboo subject, Morris’ intention for doing so is pretty darn amicable. He’s taken a hot topic that has consumed a vast amount of media attention – and our lives – and deconstructed it in a way that questions our perceptions of the Islamic faith. Morris is essentially having a good-humored laugh at global ignorance. The tables are turned and we’re shown the underside of this "nebulous, hostile Arab world" that society has artlessly sketched out for us. We’re shown humans, not suicide bombers. We’re shown families, not radical groups. We’re shown that alien ideologies are of no greater threat than our own and that the real danger lies in misunderstanding.

8.5/10