Four Lions
Chris Morris's debut feature reviewed
As the man who brought both Brass Eye and The Day Today to the world, Chris Morris is installed within my psyche as a satirical demi-god. Four Lions, Morris’ directorial and full-length debut, follows a bumbling troupe of British-born jihadists on their quest to become suicide bombers. Nothing controversial about that then.
It is not the all-becoming Brit-com juggernaut that makes Hollywood producers lie awake nursing the mother of all erections over the anticipation of closing a US remake. But that’s what we were hoping - I mean, commercial success is underground suicide right? Chris Morris is niche. A maestro of acerbic awkward melan-comedy, Morris plays on the tired pessimism of a nation that once used to own the entire fucking world.
Written by Peep Show’s Sam Bain & Jesse Armstrong as well as Morris, it’s absurd and surreal but anchored in a very current reality. Peer-pressure, one-upmanship, stupidity, forgiveness – the whole gamut of any male group-dynamic.
Riz Ahmed is a very watchable Omar, the leader of a bumbling cell of moronic would-be Jihadi’s comprising white convert Barry (Nigel Lindsay), bomb man Faisal (Adeel Akhtar), recent acquisition Hassan (Asher Ali) and the befuddled Waz (Phonejackers Kayvan Novak).
Omar’s caring family man is respectful and affable but he’s ruthlessly passionate about his heritage. Anger over the invasion of his motherland and frustrated by the incessant theological prevarication of his brothers, Omar receives the call to attend an Al-Qaeda training camp. After an untimely ejection, frustration and embarrassment become the justification for the ultimate sacrifice.
This juxtaposition of richly comic moments of sublime ridiculousness starkly cut with some very tender human scenes (an online Puffin chat room where Omar asks for forgiveness from his brethren is classic) and an underlying grisly singularity of purpose keeps the film from becoming an extended comedy sketch.
Four Lions is an intensely funny comedy about the interaction of young males’ urban disaffection and religious fundamentalism. Lack of optimism, embarrassment, pessimism, frustration, paranoia – all very contemporary social emotions in this world of well-hung parliaments, haemorrhaging oil-rigs and economic crisis. Four Lions is very British. It just happens to be about British suicide bombers. Morris underpins the film with an acceptance of failure from his protagonist, which makes the inevitable appear bleakly successful.
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