Film: The Infidel
Oct. 22nd, 2011 08:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livReasons for watching it: I liked the premise of a comedy about a Muslim man who discovers that he was adopted as a baby and his genetic parents were Jewish. Also, most of the other options available were Holocaust-themed, which is somewhat of an anti-preference for me.
Circumstances of watching it: We had a J-soc film and pizza night, which was a great success. It was a good illustration of my theory that the best way to build community is to have events that allow plenty of time for socializing but have some specific purpose beyond "just" socializing.
Verdict: The Infidel is an unexceptional comedy which is also touching and handles a sensitive issue thoughtfully.
I have a lot of respect for David Baddiel as a writer and a comedian, and The Infidel really plays to his strengths. Omid Djalili is also really superlative as the lead. The fact that I really cared about Mahmud made this so much more than a just a series of wacky hijinx and unlikely situations being used to set up comic punchlines, though that's really most of what goes on in the film. I don't know how funny it would be to someone who wasn't familiar with immigrant cultures in England, but I was just rolling about laughing. There is quite a lot of cringe / embarrassment humour which I normally don't like, but the compassion for the characters makes it work.
It's thoroughly politically incorrect. I think a film that's going to tackle Jewish-Muslim relations and xenophobia has to be pretty bold to work at all, if it had tiptoed around its rather fraught subject material I think it would have ended up being more offensive. But the thing is that it's treading that very fine line between laughing at xenophobia and stereotypes, and actually just repeating the offensive stereotypes in a supposedly ironic fashion. In my opinion it succeeds in this, but it sails close to the wind. It doesn't really spare anybody, whether it's religious extremists or warm fuzzy liberals (the imam who reassures Mahmud that it's totally fine to be a gay Muslim is screamingly hilarious).
I think one aspect that makes the comedy work for me is the fact that there's a very wide variety of Muslim and Jewish characters portrayed, and many of them are allowed to have complex relationships with their religious backgrounds, not just binaries of "fundamentalist" versus "secular". Mahmud's Jewish neighbour is a sort of stock Woody Allen neurotic middle-aged American Jewish guy, but the development of the relationship between the two leads is really beautifully done, the bickering but being there for eachother when it really matters, the trying to explain their respective cultures when they don't have a lot of detailed knowledge themselves, the way that the Israel-Palestine issue can evoke real bitterness beyond the otherwise semi-enjoyable quarrelling. The protagonist is rather rotund, and there's a strong element of physical comedy, which could be read as laughing at the fat buffoon if you're looking at it uncharitably.
The film has somewhat of a corny message about how it's more important to be yourself and be true to your values than to adhere strictly to the rules of religious observance. But it's sort of self-aware about being corny, and there's a lovely plot twist in the melodramatic showdown between Mahmud and the extremist preacher. And the real message is that regardless or politics or ethnic tensions, English culture is just a bunch of ordinary people trying to muddle through as best as they can, which is genuinely sweet. And both Baddiel and Djalili are clearly very familiar with the subcultures they're sending up here, it's not an outsider's mockery.
I enjoyed The Infidel a great deal (in spite of needing to shout "nooooo!" at the characters quite a lot!), but then I'm already a fan of Baddiel and a sucker for culture-clash storylines.
Circumstances of watching it: We had a J-soc film and pizza night, which was a great success. It was a good illustration of my theory that the best way to build community is to have events that allow plenty of time for socializing but have some specific purpose beyond "just" socializing.
Verdict: The Infidel is an unexceptional comedy which is also touching and handles a sensitive issue thoughtfully.
I have a lot of respect for David Baddiel as a writer and a comedian, and The Infidel really plays to his strengths. Omid Djalili is also really superlative as the lead. The fact that I really cared about Mahmud made this so much more than a just a series of wacky hijinx and unlikely situations being used to set up comic punchlines, though that's really most of what goes on in the film. I don't know how funny it would be to someone who wasn't familiar with immigrant cultures in England, but I was just rolling about laughing. There is quite a lot of cringe / embarrassment humour which I normally don't like, but the compassion for the characters makes it work.
It's thoroughly politically incorrect. I think a film that's going to tackle Jewish-Muslim relations and xenophobia has to be pretty bold to work at all, if it had tiptoed around its rather fraught subject material I think it would have ended up being more offensive. But the thing is that it's treading that very fine line between laughing at xenophobia and stereotypes, and actually just repeating the offensive stereotypes in a supposedly ironic fashion. In my opinion it succeeds in this, but it sails close to the wind. It doesn't really spare anybody, whether it's religious extremists or warm fuzzy liberals (the imam who reassures Mahmud that it's totally fine to be a gay Muslim is screamingly hilarious).
I think one aspect that makes the comedy work for me is the fact that there's a very wide variety of Muslim and Jewish characters portrayed, and many of them are allowed to have complex relationships with their religious backgrounds, not just binaries of "fundamentalist" versus "secular". Mahmud's Jewish neighbour is a sort of stock Woody Allen neurotic middle-aged American Jewish guy, but the development of the relationship between the two leads is really beautifully done, the bickering but being there for eachother when it really matters, the trying to explain their respective cultures when they don't have a lot of detailed knowledge themselves, the way that the Israel-Palestine issue can evoke real bitterness beyond the otherwise semi-enjoyable quarrelling. The protagonist is rather rotund, and there's a strong element of physical comedy, which could be read as laughing at the fat buffoon if you're looking at it uncharitably.
The film has somewhat of a corny message about how it's more important to be yourself and be true to your values than to adhere strictly to the rules of religious observance. But it's sort of self-aware about being corny, and there's a lovely plot twist in the melodramatic showdown between Mahmud and the extremist preacher. And the real message is that regardless or politics or ethnic tensions, English culture is just a bunch of ordinary people trying to muddle through as best as they can, which is genuinely sweet. And both Baddiel and Djalili are clearly very familiar with the subcultures they're sending up here, it's not an outsider's mockery.
I enjoyed The Infidel a great deal (in spite of needing to shout "nooooo!" at the characters quite a lot!), but then I'm already a fan of Baddiel and a sucker for culture-clash storylines.
