Yasmin

The film "Yasmin" by Kenny Glenaan deals with the difficulties of a young Pakistan woman who tries to manage a western life, free of tradition, as well as a religious Muslim life.

Yasmin, protagonist, lives in a mill town in the north of England with her father, Khalid her brother Nasir and isolated Faysal to whom she has been married by her parents so that he can stay in England. Nevertheless Yasmin wants to be divorced as soon as possible. Together with her English colleague John she works for a social service and she seems to be far more away from than she actually is, always trying to distract herself from the problems of her migrant community life. Soon she finds herself facing an unfamiliar experience: Islamophobia caused by the incident of 9/11. John still wants to care and plays down the bullying of their colleagues. Suddenly Faysal is suspected of being involved into 9/11 so that Yasmin and her family and John are taken into custody. This is when John is told by the police that he is friends with a woman who is married to a man that is most likely involved into terror activities.

With "Yasmin" Kenny Gleenan has made a really versatile film that deals with prejudice but makes a most unprejudiced statetment. What I really like is that the viewer is able to comprehend every character's actions and opinion and nobody is judged too harshly. The film also leaves enough space to form your really own opinion. I can imagine that especially viewers of Muslim origin who live in a European country can easily identify with Yasmin's conflict.

I caught this movie on TV and didn't think it would necessarily appeal to me, but from the very first I was caught up in it and had to watch right to the end. I thought the acting performances were very honest, while the script was true-to-life. I felt as if I was entering Yasmin's world every time she went home.

I particularly liked the friendship she had with John, which played out realistically.

At no point were the events clichéd, and the drama-documentary feel of the film was very effective. There were lots of well-observed details which lent to the authenticity of the film, and nice juxtapositions of the Muslim community living in a northern English town.

I found it compelling and moving.

Yasmin Husseini lives with her father, brother, uncle and her "husband" – her marriage to immigrant Faysal being an arrangement between families as opposed to a relationship. Divorce is on the cards as she is very together and British-born while his poor English and "uncivilised" ways grate on her. Living a traditional Muslim life at home for her father but living like a "Westerner" at work, Yasmin is forced to take sides when a news flash comes onto the TV on the afternoon of September 11th 2001. Treated differently by everyone, Yasmin tries to get on the best she can but soon learns about the true nature of new UK terror laws when it turns out that Faysal who has a brother back home who teaches at a school funded by the KLF.

Described by another reviewer on this site in his name-dropping but useful review on this site as a "light-hearted comedy", this film was clearly not marketed well if that's what people thought it was going to be – rather it is a solid drama that looks at the impact of 11/9/01 on the British Muslim community – many of the younger generation, like Yasmin, have much more in community with western values than with those preached by Bin Laden. On the face of it the film could have been a very PC affair with a load of pandering; however, aside from loads of "white authority" stereotypes the film is pretty balanced and interesting look at the plight of Yasmin. The story is interesting enough and lots of issues are touched on – interracial relationships, fear, old world versus western values, disaffected youth and so on; mostly it all works although the nature of the beast means that Yasmin's situation is quite extreme because so many situations are rolled into the experience of the Husseini family.

The cast is pretty good though and it is mainly their work that keeps it worked and stops their characters just being big clichés. Panjabi is a good actress and her Yasmin is well crafted with conflicting loyalties and desires, making her an interesting character and a good performance. Ahmed's Nas is a good performance, very natural, and it is not his fault that he has to carry the extreme experience of disaffected youth being drawn into terrorism. Jackson is lumbered with a poor character – merely a combination of all the mistrust that we are being old that "all white people" have towards Islam; he tries his best and is natural at the start but once 9/11 occur he is clumsy and poorly written when viewed next to Yasmin.

Overall this is a good film that does a good job of summarising the Muslim experience since they became public enemy #1. Being Northern Irish, I know how it feels (and also know how it feels to suffer under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, as was) and I am not too sympathetic with Muslims groups who play the race card in every discussion on this subject, so I liked that the film didn't do that. The title role is well performed and the film does a good job of pulling a lot together without making it one big clichéd PC mess.

While watching the movie "Yasmin", directed by Kenny Glenaan, you get a realistic picture of a Muslim family from Pakistan living in the north of England. As you can guess from the title, the plot is focused on emancipated Yasmin Husseini, who switches between her traditional Muslim and her modern western life. After the incidents of 9/11, an arranged marriage and a night in prison, she withdraws from her "double-life" and comes back to her Muslim origin.

Without using any spectacular visual effects "Yasmin" catches you with a lot authenticity. All of the different but interesting and individual characters make the film very dynamic. On the one hand, there is the conservative father Khalid, who just tries to conform to his western life without losing his Muslim tradition. Yasmin's brother Nasir, on the other hand, is fed up with his life in the western culture. Another important person is Faisal, the "import" and Yasmin's husband, who is not able to communicate with anyone of the Husseinis but a goat. Yasmin as the main character has to cope with all these family members and tries not to hurt or disappoint anyone. You will see how she manages all that, although going on with her ordinary modern lifestyle.

I want to recommend this movie to all of you because it shows a point of view from "the other side" of dealing with terror and religious identity. You are demanded to think about Muslim culture and our established prejudices.

It is a "story" built on top of a "topic". The story is about the consequences of the September 11 attacks on the daily life of a young British Muslim woman. The topic is Islam's shift towards conservatism (and fundamentalism) that many people blame on The West's "fight against terrorism".

As such the story is necessarily incomplete, stereotypical, and unreal. But, as such, it does a pretty good job of making me think of what could be real --- the fear, the hate, the horror of law abuse, the consequences.

The movie is also well balanced: smiles and tears are spared wisely. I just did not like the end.