The Reluctant Fundamentalist directed by Mira Nair wants to examine what it is to be liked to be caught up in a cross fire of differing cultures and religion which makes you question your own identity.
In the background of the kidnapping of an American diplomat, a reporter, Bobby Lincoln (Liev Schreiber) interviews a radical professor in Lahore called Changez (Riz Ahmed) who might be involved with the terrorist groups involved in the kidnapping and who is on the radar of the security services. Lincoln hopes that Changez will lead him to the kidnappers.
Changez sits for an interview with Lincoln and figures out quickly that Lincoln is involved with the CIA. Changez protests his innocence and explains his life story as a Pakistani immigrant in America, who graduated from a top university and got a plum job in finance.
Life was going well for Changez, he has a white American girlfriend, popular with work colleagues but things change after 9/11. Changez suffers from constant humiliation such as being strip searched at the airport, wrongful arrests, racial abuse. He finds other ethnic groups fearful in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.
As time goes on Changez questions his identity, his relationship with his girlfriend suffers. During a trip to Istanbul for a hostile takeover, he meets a man who translated his father's poetry fro Urdu to Turkish and has a spiritual awakening that causes him to leave his job and travel to Pakistan to work as a professor. His teaching enlightens his students but also brought him into contact with more shady terrorist sympathisers.
The film contained a lot of location shooting. The Blue Mosque in Istanbul, A fort in India and some location shooting in Pakistan as well as the USA.
The central premise was intriguing but never reaches its full potential. Changez is a man who could had easily switched allegiance from his love of all things American to a Pakistani society who needs to wean off itself from imperialist nations.
The resolution was rather ham fisted, tagged on to give the film some urgency and make it more thrilling. It did show elements of thoughtfulness but some of it just felt clumsy.
Good performances from Ahmed, Schreiber and Kiefer Sutherland.
In the background of the kidnapping of an American diplomat, a reporter, Bobby Lincoln (Liev Schreiber) interviews a radical professor in Lahore called Changez (Riz Ahmed) who might be involved with the terrorist groups involved in the kidnapping and who is on the radar of the security services. Lincoln hopes that Changez will lead him to the kidnappers.
Changez sits for an interview with Lincoln and figures out quickly that Lincoln is involved with the CIA. Changez protests his innocence and explains his life story as a Pakistani immigrant in America, who graduated from a top university and got a plum job in finance.
Life was going well for Changez, he has a white American girlfriend, popular with work colleagues but things change after 9/11. Changez suffers from constant humiliation such as being strip searched at the airport, wrongful arrests, racial abuse. He finds other ethnic groups fearful in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.
As time goes on Changez questions his identity, his relationship with his girlfriend suffers. During a trip to Istanbul for a hostile takeover, he meets a man who translated his father's poetry fro Urdu to Turkish and has a spiritual awakening that causes him to leave his job and travel to Pakistan to work as a professor. His teaching enlightens his students but also brought him into contact with more shady terrorist sympathisers.
The film contained a lot of location shooting. The Blue Mosque in Istanbul, A fort in India and some location shooting in Pakistan as well as the USA.
The central premise was intriguing but never reaches its full potential. Changez is a man who could had easily switched allegiance from his love of all things American to a Pakistani society who needs to wean off itself from imperialist nations.
The resolution was rather ham fisted, tagged on to give the film some urgency and make it more thrilling. It did show elements of thoughtfulness but some of it just felt clumsy.
Good performances from Ahmed, Schreiber and Kiefer Sutherland.