Four Lions

Chris Morris isn't one of those comedians that plays it safe. Anyone familiar with his TV work will know of Brass Eye Paedophile Specials and getting the made up drug Cake discussed in parliament. Delve deeper into the nightmare-scape that is Jam and you find a woman calling a plumber because her baby has died so he makes it a part of the house's pipe system so when they use the water it moves. So it's not really a shock that the subject of his first film is a group of Jihadist suicide bombers looking to bring carnage to the streets of Britain. But this is far more subtle than his previous work, almost to the level where it could even be called gentle.

Like last year's In The Loop (by Morris cohort from The Day Today Armando Iannucci) this is a film that deals primarily with characters and dialogue. There are some absurd set pieces in Four Lions but for the most part it prefers looking towards the smaller things. For a start the suicide bombers are presented as humans. You may even find yourself caring for them, even rooting for them. This is at once the gentle aspect I spoke about and also the most radical thing about the film. Instead of showing them as monsters Morris looks at them as people, very stupid and misguided people, but people. Ringleader Omar is shown to have a nice home, a smart and attractive wife and a small child. Somewhere along the line though he's become alienated from the Islamic faith and Britain's consumerist attitude and decided that blowing himself up is the only way to go. His brother Waj is about as clever as a four year old who's head is missing. He's in purely because he does everything his brother asks of him. Like others he's probably not really into the whole death bit, not because he has doubts like them,but because he doesn't quite get what is being asked of him. Best of all is white convert Barry, a man who looks like a football hooligan, albeit it one dressed like a devout Muslim. He's a bit like a born again Christian, trying desperately to prove himself worthy after years of living a different life. As such he's by far the most into the Jihad, in fact he's a little too far into it. Brilliantly though he appears to also be a racist who hates his brown skinned cohorts and who's grand plan is to bomb a Mosque, supposedly so moderates rise up in anger, but he keeps forgetting he needs to blame someone else for it.

Four Lions is at once a biting social satire and a hilariously silly film. While it raises some interesting, and little asked, questions about suicide bombers it also features scenes about bomb crows, confusion over whether a Wookie is a bear, and the grand Jewish conspiracy to control the world through spark plugs. I sincerely doubt that there will be a funnier film released this year, or one that actually challenges the viewer to question things as much. Sadly it's very doubtful it'll get a wider worldwide release, I could lie and say it's mainly because of the very British sense of humour but let's be honest it's the subject matter. That is a great shame as it's a brilliant, brave piece of filmmaking and deserves to be seen by as many people as possible.