FOUR LIONS
Four Lions, the hugely anticipated feature film debut from Brass Eye's Chris Morris, is currently screening at cinemas across the UK. Chris joined forces with Peep Show writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong alongside Warp Films producers Mark Herbert and Derrin Schlesinger, who shot the jihadist comedy at locations around their home city Sheffield.
Four Lions premiered at The Bradford International Film Festival in March and is released at cinemas nationwide on 7th May 2010.
Synopsis
In a British city, four men have a secret plan. Omar (Riz Ahmed) is disillusioned about the treatment of Muslims around the world and is determined to become a soldier. This is the most exciting idea Waj (Kayvan Novak) has ever heard. Better still it's a no brainer because Omar does his thinking for him. Opposed to Omar and everyone else on earth is the white Islamic convert Barry (Nigel Lindsay). He'd realise he joined the cell to channel his nihilism - If he had half the self knowledge of a duck. Faisal (Adeel Akhtar) is the odd man out. He can make a bomb - but he can't blow himself up just now coz his sick dad has "started eating newspaper". Instead he's training crows to fly bombs through windows. This is what Omar has to deal with. They must strike a decisive blow on their own turf but can any of them strike a match without punching himself in the face?
Four Lions tells the story of a group of British jihadists who push their abstract dreams of glory to the breaking point. As the wheels fly off, and their competing ideologies clash, what emerges is an emotionally engaging (and entirely plausible) farce. In a storm of razor-sharp verbal jousting and large-scale set pieces, Four Lions is a comic tour de force; it shows that-while terrorism is about ideology-it can also be about idiots. Sundance Film Festival
There are moments of brilliance in Four Lions, both in the relationships whose development is heartbreaking and the events which shock and are gut punches, but Morris earns every single one of them..........a modern British classic, truly hilarious and unique, combining amazing performances with a twisted, almost surreal, momentum. www.heyuguys.co.uk
Audacious, original and brilliantly executed, writer/director Morris' big-screen debut puts the mental into fundamentalist to follow the half-baked plans of a bumbling group of British Muslims intent on blowing themselves up in the name of Allah.......Brilliantly constructing laughs that can stop dead in your throat, it's one of the funniest, riskiest comedies you'll ever see. www.lovefilm.com/reviews/Four-Lions
Four Lions is scheduled for DVD release on 30th August 2010
Four Lions is a Warp Films production for Optimum Releasing and Film 4. Visit the official site for reviews, trailers and UK-wide venues. www.four-lions.co.uk
