Yasmin (2004) Movie Review

With “Yasmin” and his earlier film “Gas Attack” (about an anthrax breakout), director Kenneth Glenaan seems to be studying the atmosphere and climate of our nation. The climate – both films suggest – is one of fear.

This film opens with a scene in which a middle-aged Pakistani man going to open up his shop. On the grating, someone has written ‘Pakis go home’ with spray paint.

The man, we learn, is Yasmin’s father. There is also Nasa, her brother. They make up a Muslim, Pakistani family in the North of England. She is married (not out of choice) to a man who speaks little English, and prefers his pet goat to her.

About half way through the film, the planes hit the Twin Towers, and the world changes. People start looking at Yasmin differently. Since she is not white, British and Christian, she fits the mould for a potential terrorist, as do the rest of her family, and neighbourhood. Everywhere Yasmin turns, she seems to see irrational fear and hatred, even from the people she considered her friends.

I was surprised by how powerful I found the film (especially its sad, touching ending). The reason it has the impact it does is because it does not do what too many people do; see the family of Muslims as just that: a family of Muslims. It sees them as flawed human beings. The father is very proud of his name, and will not let Yasmin or Nasa do anything to bring embarrassment to him (little does he know, Nasa spends his free time selling weed to teenage girls). Yasmin is sort of proud too; she gives Nasa (and her husband) food, but will not take any cheek from them. She reacts with anger when people are racist to her friends, and kicks her husband out when he hits her.

One day the police bash her door down, and arrest her; they are looking for her husband, whom they (wrongly) consider a terrorist. The new laws concerning terrorism are so vague and open to interpretation, that anyone that gives any reason to make the police believe he or she is even potentially a terrorist can be held in prison for pretty much as long as they consider necessary. These laws do no encourage tolerance and open-mindedness in society.

If the film is flawed, it is in its portrayal of white people. They are too often seen as just the people giving the Muslims a rough time. The only one that I had any sympathy for is the guy who could have been her boyfriend, if things had turned out differently.

But they did not, and on September 11th, 2001, three thousand people died, and the public wanted someone to blame. A lot of people employed hatred because they thought it would be part of the solution, not realising that hatred was the cause. Of course, not everyone did, and the film could have been a bit more even-handed.

I think the point of the film is that tolerance and understanding are the only ways we can achieve happiness and peace. If the world had more, then perhaps the events of September 11th could have been avoided. But that was then and this is now, and we have to face the problem as it stands.

Hatred is not the answer. It never is.