Four Lions research

Director: Chris Morris
Written by: Chris Morris, Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong
Starring:Riz Ahmed

Arsher Ali

Nigel Lindsay

Kayvan Novak

Adeel Akhtar

Craig Parkinson

Release: the film premiered at the Sundance film festival in January 2010 the UK premiere took place on the 25th March 2010 at the Bradford international film festival followed by a nationwide release on the 7th May.

Box office ratings: Despite an initial release on just 115 screens across the UK, the film saw impressive numbers at the box office on its opening weekend, generating the highest site average of all the new releases (£5,292) and making a total of £609,000.

• As of 8 August 2010, Four Lions grossed £2,932,366 at the UK box office.
• As of 10 February 2011, Four Lions grossed $300,226 at the US box office, and $4,228,904 elsewhere, for a worldwide total of $4,529,130.

Production: Chris Morris spent 3 years researching the project, speaking to terroist experts, police, the secret services, imams as well as ordinary Muslims. The project was originally rejected by both the BBC and channel 4 for being too controversial. Therefore Morris suggested a mass email called 'funding mentalism' so fans could contribute money for production costs of the film. However eventually Film 4 production and Warp films secured funding in October 2008.

Plot: The film follows a group of young Muslim men living in Sheffield who aspire to become radicalised suicide bombers. The film follows the group attempting and failing many times to blow up various locations with suggestions such as bombing the mosque being made. In the end the group decide to bomb the London marathon disguising themselves in fancy dress. However in the end the leader Omar realises he has mislead and forced his friend Waj into doing something he doesnt want to do and tries to persuade him not to kill himself, this fails and Waj detonates the bomb in a local kebab shop. Distraught Omar goes to the pharmacy a suggestion previously made to bomb and detonates his own bomb.

Critical response: Four Lions recieved mostly positive reviews such as; "premise suggests brazenly tasteless humor, but Four Lions is actually a smart, pitch-black comedy that carries the unmistakable ring of truth." this was said by the site Rotton tomatoes which gave the film a rating of 81% with an average rating of 7.2 out of 10 by viewers. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/ The daily telegraph said how his humour and approach was brilliantly real. However the film did get some negative reviews amongst these was one from The Guardian which said that "as a satire on terror, Four Lions seems to be a missed opportunity".

However Morris fought back by saying...
Morris has described the film as a "farce", which exposes the "Dad's Army side to terrorism".During the making of the film, the director sent the script to former Guantánamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg. Begg has said that he found nothing in the script that would be offensive to British Muslims. The actor Riz Ahmed also contacted Begg, to ask whether the subject matter was "too raw". When the film was completed, Begg was given a special screening and said that he enjoyed it.

Behind the title: The title of Four Lions was chosen as Omar the leader of the group constantly refers to each lion choosing suicide for themselves.

Wasp (2003)

Directed and written by: Andrea Arnold

Starring: Danny Dyer, Nathalie Press, Jodie Mitchell, Molly Griffiths, Kaitlyn Raynor and Danny Daley

Zoe is a single mother who lives with her four children in Dartford, she is poor and cant afford to buy food. One day her ex-boyfriend drives by and asks her to go on a date with him. This will be her first date in years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasp_(film)

Fishtank(2009) directed by Andrea Arnold

Directed and written by: Andrea Arnold
Starring: Katie Jarvis, Michael Fassbender and Kierston Wareing

Mia a 15 year old girl lives with her mother and younger sister in a Essex council estate. Mia is a loner and does not seem to have any close friends. In the first scen of the movie she gets into a fight with other girls on the estate. We realise early on her only way escape is through dance, where she practices alone in a deserted flat.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_Tank_(film)

Representation of women in contemporary British cinema

• Library dramas like Charlotte Gray have celebrated the roles played by women in history.

• On of the most developed area of British film culture a rising number of female directors and writers have contributed to this rise increase.

• Films such as Fanny Elvis (1999) have confronted issues such as infidelity and abortion, other films like Mad Cows (1999) have tried to confront roles which affect the female body in particular hard hitting subjects which the female audience can relate to.

• Close friendships represented in films such as 'Anita and me' are used as to overshadow other tensions and jealousies relating to age, gender, ethnic and intellectual difference.

• How to used narrative or voice to represent women rather than the body can be seen in Stella does tricks (1996) where a teenage victims story of abuse and prostitution is recounted to others.

• The Bridget Jones films is perhaps the best film to look at to compare the change in gender politics in recent years where the Bridget Jones character has become an icon for post-feminists.

• They depict the feelings of both freedom and loneliness and displays the singleton lifestyle and how this trend of single occupancy is increasing.

• There has also been alot of films made around the grief and trauma of abuse that women receive.

• The film 'Red Road' shows this passive nature of women who suffer the abuse along with the intensity of their grief.

Media language library

http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/language-media-literacy-glossary-terms

Slumdog millionaire

Factfile...

• 2008 British film directed by Danny Boyle
• Adaption of the novel Q&A
• Had a nationwide release in January 2009
• Nominated for 10 academy awards in 2009 and won 8
• Won 7 baftas, 5 critic choice awards and 5 golden globes.

Danny Boyle describes how he 'wanted to get across the sense of this huge amount of fun that are in the communities of the slums. what you pick up on is the mass of energy.'
 The film looks at India from a post colonial standpoint which means it looks at India from a British viewpoint.
This film has received mixed reactions from critics one critic said how this ' feel good movie of the year may help us feel good that we are among the lucky ones on earth, it delivers a patronizing, colonial and ultimately sham statement on social justice for those who are not' Critic India Knight shared the same view when she said the that the film is 'something that would make western audiences feel better about their own lives'. However the film didn't receive just negative feedback in an article form the telegraph one critic made reference to the it being like Usain bolts performance at the Olympics; funny, shocking, turbo-charged. It takes your breath away at the same time makes you want to holler with joy.

However even though the film has received such mixed reviews it cannot take away from the fact that it has received so many awards reflecting that director Danny Boyle must have done something right.

New wave media

Film representing 2010

PLOT: 

•  Group of friends, 1 from the middle east
• One goes off to war
• Boy returns from war with a disability e.g.missing arm/leg
• Friend comes back from war and ends up getting involved with a new violent group of friends
• Commits crime but finds it hard to be completely able to be involved
• Gets caught and ends up in prison and in the media.

ACTORS/ACTRESSES:

• Noel Clarke
• Jack O'Connell
• Shona McGarty
• Dev Patel

REFERENCES:

• Hurt locker
• Skins
• Kidulthood/Adulthood