East Is East (film)

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East is East

Promotional Poster
Directed by Damien O'Donnell
Written by Ayub Khan-Din
Starring Om Puri
Linda Bassett
Jordan Routledge
Music by Deborah Mollison
Distributed by Channel 4 Films (UK theatrical)
Miramax (US theatrical)
Release date(s) 1999
Running time 96 mins
Country UK
Language English/Urdu
Budget £1.9m
IMDb profile

East is East is a BAFTA award-winning British comedy film released in 1999.

It is set in a mixed-race household with a Pakistani father and a British mother in Salford, in 1971. George Khan (played by Om Puri), the father, expects his family to follow his strict Pakistani ways, but his children, who were born and raised in Britain, increasingly see themselves as British and reject their father's rules on dress, food, religion, and living in general.

East is East is based on the play of the same name by Ayub Khan-Din. It was directed by Damien O'Donnell.

Contents

[edit] Title

The title East is East comes from the first line of the Rudyard Kipling Poem The Ballad Of East And West "Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet..."

[edit] Synopsis

George Khan has been married to an English woman named Ella for 25 years, and has seven children with her. The trouble begins when Nazir, their first-born son (who it later becomes clear, is gay), bails out of marrying the Pakistani girl his father has chosen for him at the last minute, leading to a bitter estrangement. Then the youngest son Sajid is discovered to be uncircumcised: the boy is horrified at his father's plans to have the ceremonial surgery carried out, and tries to resist, but in vain. Meanwhile, marriage is still on George's mind, and he accepts an introduction to Mr. Shah, who is looking for good Pakistani bridegrooms for his two ridiculously ugly daughters. Despite having seen the daughters' photographs, George promises Mr. Shah that his second and third sons, Tariq and Abdul, will marry them. Sajid overhears George's plans and they are revealed when getting pressured by Meenah, Tariq and Saleem. The movie reflects the migration of Asians into Britain in the 1970s and the social segregation that it caused between the white and foreign communities.

[edit] Realism and multicultural society

The film to some extent joins the tradition of social realist films made by Ken Loach and some other directors, in that it deals with the problems of ordinary people from the poorer sections of society, and takes their problems seriously, trying to avoid stereotyping or excessively idealizing them. It is different in that previously most such films had dealt with all-white sections of the community (miners for example). This film consciously sets out to look at mixing of culture.

Some critics have suggested that there is a certain idealisation of the community - for example the only person with racist prejudices in the film is portrayed as a completely isolated bigot, whereas the general trend is seen to be joyful mixing of cultures and rituals.

[edit] Cast

[edit] International exhibition and responses

US poster
US poster

In the UK, East is East was remarkably successful for a low-budget comedy, grossing over £10 million in the UK and the USA after only having a £1.9 million budget. The film also made £12,300,000 in rentals. [1]

In the USA, the distributor, Miramax, used marketing that obscures the presence of Asian characters: the poster features the face of a blonde woman, with the Asian characters appearing only in small windows.

In France the film was retitled Fish and Chips. ...

[edit] Awards and nominations

The film won the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film at the BAFTA Awards. The director, Damien O'Donnell, also received a British Independent Film Awards nomination for the film. [2]


[edit] External links

Preceded by
Elizabeth		 Alexanda Korda Award for Best British Film
1999		 Succeeded by
Billy Elliot