Izzat, les versets du mal

Izzat may be the very first movie from Norway which can be classified as a good movie, not just a "good-to-be-Norwegians"-movie.

Izzat paints an image of Oslo, Norways capital, and its crime-environment in the mid-90's. We follow Wasim and his involvement in Westside Crew, the Pakistanian crime-gang.

What makes this movie extra special, is the realness of it all. Several Pakistanis which are familiar with the crime and the gangs in Oslo, say that the movie is extremely real, with the exception of a few details.

Unfortunately, Izzat has got a few problems with the acting. Both of Wasims friends, and his sister, suffers from bad acting.

The soundtrack however, is outstanding. Typical rock music from the mid-90's, and even better, several Norwegian bands! All in all, if you speak Norwegians, or if this movie is dubbed into English sometime, absolutely one of THE films this year.

Norway is a country where you don't very often see good action movies because of its need in resources and the fact that our directors haven't really had the talent for it. This is definitely an exception where we get to see realistic gun fighting scenes which where shot from the older sections of Oslo city. The movie sets a new standard for Norwegian action movies

Izzat starts out in the Pakistanian gang environment in Oslo in the early 80's and gives a realistic picture on how they played out their role in organized crime. Director Ulrik Imtiaz Rolfsen grew up in the environment and used people he knows in his research for the film and that gives us a very realistic picture on how things where. I really enjoyed it and hope there is more to come !

After watching this movie, I just thought "what a movie!".

Well - Norwegian directors hasn't been the greatest and cleverest action-movie makers like Spielberg, Roland Emmerich and Peter Jackson. Every time a director tried, the movie failed.

But in 2005, the fresh director Ulrik Imtiaz Rolfsen took, with his movie, a little step for a man but a big step for Movie-Norway.

The actors (Emil Marwa, Elyas Mohammed, et cetera) performs very well in the film. Everything feel so real, so intense.

We meet three Pakistani-Norwegian boys in Oslo, 1984, named Wasim, Riaz and Munawar. Those boys gets involved with the East Side Crew gang. First, there is small jobs like thieving and things like that - after ten years, they become dangerous, hard armed and drug-dealing gangsters.

Applause to Rolfsen and his cast!

The new norwegian gangster movie delivers what it's promising. It kinda reminded me of A Bronx Tale from 1993 with Robert De Niro but with some more and detailed violence. The movie is great, the acting is awesome and the characters are brutal but real. I know this since I have been with these kind of people before and seen it upclose and personal.

I went to see this with a open mind, after seeing Uno on the cinema last year I kinda figured this would be some of the same but it were way better. I can safely recommend this to all of you out there. Just enjoy some gangster stuff taken from the reality and see what crime has become and how it got that way in Norway. I'm once again hooked and looking forward to the next great norwegian movie.

8 out of 10 stars in my book.

The word Izzat means 'respect' in Urdu. In a way the movie was all about gaining respect in society. Unfortunately many people enter in to a one way street to get their place in society. A street where there is no turning back...ever! This movie is about 3 boys who were disappointed with poor state of their migrant Pakistani families and the fact that very few Pakistani were enjoying real respect in Norwegian society at that time. One day they come across to a drug gang run by a very ruthless Pakistani 'Sadiq'. They grow up with the gang doing small jobs for them and ultimately becoming the core members of the gang. The main character of the movie Wasim comes across many ugly situations which were all due to his involvement with the gang. That includes shooting his best childhood friend, seeing his sister being raped by his enemies and trying to pay off his younger brother gambling debt. I don't want to spoil the movie for others by telling a lot but this movie does succeeds in gripping it's viewers with it's realistic yet ugly events in underworld crimes. You will almost wish for Wasim to somehow get out of the whole thing.

I will agree with one of the reviewers that acting might have been better in the movie. The Urdu acting was not fantastic either. But the movie still managed to grip me with its strong plot and realistic events. I will certainly recommend this movie for people who like gangster type movie with underworld background.