Love + Hate

Set in a Northern town where white racism is prevalent and Muslim youth are torn between their contemporary world and their parent's traditional faith. Adam and Naseem are typical of their sections of the community but are dissatisfied with their lifestyles. They start a relationship which predictably challenges what is regarded as acceptable by their peers and parents.

Although there is nothing new in this film it does a good job of exposing complex issues within contemporary Britain. The acting is brilliant and brings alive the familiar themes of intolerance, revenge, teenage sexuality and love in multicultural Britain. The story perhaps relies a little too much on coincidences.

The movie wears it's message on it's sleeve. It's about racism in England. No, not Black v. White, but Brown v. White. A Pakistani British girl gets a job in a wallpaper store. There she is welcomed by all but the boy to whom she is assigned to as a trainee. He is surly, largely mute, and it's clear he hates "Pakis." In the mean time we are introduced to an older Pakistani male who works at a factory and has to contend with the racial digs of his fellows. One man, a manager, hesitantly engages him in talk, but he shows his prejudices with his ignorance of the other man's culture. The message is clear: If you are a Brit, then there is only one cultural standard and that is working class neanderthalism.

Soon enough we see the people are linked. The girl is the sister of the Pakistani man, and his strictures to her are clear: don't date "Goras(?)", i.e. local Brits. It is also clear that these rules apply to her but not to him.

The girl befriends another girl at work, who is clearly out for wanton pleasure. This friend turns out to be the daughter of the man who is the manager of the Pakistani male. When the girls are seen walking home by the Pakistani male he chides her for "hanging out" with the wrong sort.

So far so good. Is the movie going to show us the British working class ethnocentrism, and amorality, clashing with a more rigid, religious imported culture? Yes, but it's also going to show us the hypocrisy and male chauvinism of the Pakistani male.

To complete the circle and connect all the characters the Pakistani male picks up the friend of his sister. This is done in a manner highly parallel to picking up a whore; she sits on a bench with a friend, all tarted up, and they get into the car of whomever that drives by. The Pakistani male is right: she is the wrong sort, but she's the sort that turns him on, and to his chagrin he eventually falls for her.

In the mean time we see more into the reasons for the Pakistani girls being ignored by the boy at work. His brother and mother are proud racists. The brother makes it clear that "shagging" a "Paki" would be grounds for expulsion from the "white" race, and his mother hates them because she blames them for having more entrepreneurial skill than she does.

It is therefore inevitable that he will make a pass at the Pakistani girl, if only to taste forbidden fruit.

Having set us up, it is now only a question of how the movie will bring all these inevitable collisions together, and whether anyone will walk away from the smoke! Collisions do occur, and people get beaten up, but the young couple, now deeply in love, cast off away from their families, in search of a more tolerant lifestyle. Nothing is said of the inevitable cultural and religious clashes ahead of them when the love glow ebbs, but at least they don't end up committing suicide! The message is clear: love wins out from intolerance and familial dark holes! It's a nice message if an overly optimistic and unrealistic one.

I saw this film at the 2006 Palm Springs International Film Festival and this film was well attended and received by the audiences there. Dominic Savage comes out with a pretty strong film for his directorial big screen debut in a film he also wrote. It's a reworking of an old theme of two people from different cultures falling in love and the inevitable problems they face when cultures clash but this is rendered well and reflects the very real misconceptions and prejudices of a modern city in the UK. The film has a real raw gritty look and has some of the feel of a modern West Side Story in it's Romeo & Juliet tension and a modern American Graffiti in it's capturing of kids with cars in a contemporary cruise-scene environment. The ending was a little weak but I would rate it a 6.5 of a scale of 10 and recommend it.

To judge by the comments here, it's one of those films you indeed either love or hate. I loved it; to me, coming from the north of England, the characters and dialogue were utterly convincing and compelling. (Maybe because the decent, fair-minded chap who ran the wallpaper shop reminded me of my Dad... unfortunately some of the other characters, with their odious and ignorant views, I recognised too.)

To me, the only problem was the over-reliance on coincidences (oh, so Greek drama). But I liked the fact that many of the expected clichés were avoided.

So, Hollywood it ain't. If you like your films smartly scripted and smoothly acted, you may well hate the Loach-style rough edges.

But for me, this raw and bluntly honest film was one of the most powerful pieces of cinema of the year. And, actually, excellently acted. Throughout I kept saying, that's what it's like. That's just what they do. That's exactly what they say. And, by gosh, I wish it wasn't.

First and foremost, this is only my 2nd post ever and I've been using this website for well over 2 years now. My point is, something has to stir me up, to write a comment.

Well this film has, and more to the point some of the negative posts by others. Firstly, its not a classic. Secondly and more importantly, its nowhere near belonging on the scrap heap either. As the other posts have explained the outline of the plot, I refrain from repeating. What I will say though, is how surprised I was at how good I felt this film was upon its conclusion. I've watched so many films over the years, and have seen nearly all of the films in the top 250 on this website. Like I've said, its not a classic, but the film has a really good effort at offering a powerful and compelling story about issues in modern Britain. Comments made about the standard of the acting, are at the very least harsh, and seem to miss the point. The actors are indeed supposed to be young adults from Blackburn starting life out in the working world. It would be inappropriate to be acted with the grandeur of a Hollywood line-up. They give it a really good go and certain scenes are to a degree shocking and indeed quite moving.

No, its not a tear-jerker. It just has a powerful, if not slightly plagiarised plot, leaving you feeling better for indulging in its 86 minutes of worthwhile subject. Its a good British film you should watch with an open mind and an hour and a half of uninterrupted time.