Four Lions.

Four Lions.

Key Cast: Will Adamsdale, Riz Ahmed and Adeel Akhtar.

Director: Christopher Morris

Writer: Christopher Morris

Genre: Comedy Drama

Themes: Friendship, Family, Religion

Release: May 2010

Budget:

The satirical drama is about suicide bombers who are planing an attack. Although the film touches on a serious topic it has comedic elements which mocks the audience's ideas of the Islamic religion. The film focuses more about the act of the bombing rather than the religious side to the event which is what the audience may not expect to see. The audience expects to see a suicide bomber to be intimidating and violent whereas the film shows them to be ridiculous and dopey. This is important because the film challenges the stereotypes for example by showing two sides of what people think of the Islamic religion (showing muslims wanting to bomb busy locations and then showing other muslims trying to stop violence and promote peace). It could be argued that the stereotypes in this film are balanced as when there is a negative representation their is a positive representation.

A key scene within this film is when Omar and Waj go to Training camp in Pakistan. This is an important scene because it shows to the audience that the characters in the film are serious about what they want to do but then it shows that they aren't capable of doing it due to the fact they have no idea what they are doing. The scene takes a serious situation and makes it comedic to show that the characters in the film are prone to mistakes and ultimately will not achieve the goal.
Another key scene is when the main characters come to carry out the bombing. This is important because again the film turns a serious situation into something funny and comedic. During the scene when they are about to attend the marathon they are dressed up in ridiculous costumes and they start to panic because of what they are about to do. They all run off in different directions trying to make sure they reach their goals. However what is important about this scene is that the audience are unsure as to how they should react as even though it is a funny situation it is still something we shouldn't really find comedic. Also what is important about this scene is that throughout the film it was unclear if they were going to actually be able to carry out the attack but they did (even though it was not as planned).

An important micro-feature in this film is performance. The audience has to believe that the characters are serious about carrying out the bombing yet have to come across as dopey and not the brightest people. This is because it is a serious topic which has comedic elements. Also the performance also helps show the personality and the roles of the characters. From the performance we know that Omar is the leader in the group and is the most serious about the bombing. Also the audience knows that Waj is seen as the irresponsible one in the group and often doesn't make the best decisions due to his child like behaviour and personality. Barry however wants to believe that he is the leader and that he is in control. The performance of the characters are important because it helps the audience to differentiate the characters personality but also allows them to get the know the characters. Also because the film is something that should be taken seriously the odd mix of personalities and performance brings humour as the audience doesn't expect to see such unorganised people to be behind a suicide bombing.