Four Lions – 2010 | 101 mins | Comedy, Satire | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Satirist Chris Morris, the arch-controversialist behind The Day Today and Brass Eye, approaches another provocative subject matter with his debut feature film Four Lions; suicide bombers. Co-written with Peep Show writers Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, Morris aims to show terrorist activity can often contain elements of farce, petty behaviour, bungling and egocentricity. The film puts a human face on people usually demonised and shows the wide range of the cell dynamic from the foolish and deluded, to the psychotic, some nihilistic, without ever condoning their actions or ideology. Rather than a sharp and sombre satire, Morris offers a patchy and chaotic comedy with broad gags and plenty of old-fashioned slapstick.

Five young wannabe jihadis from Sheffield who attempt to create a terrorist atrocity. Omar (Riz Ahmed) is the most sensible; a hard-working middle-class family man disillusioned about the treatment of Muslims. Omar travels to a Pakistan training camp with Waj (Kayvan Novak), an infantile clown who lets Omar do the thinking for him and sees life through the world of Xbox. Unfortunately the duo possess more enthusiasm than intelligence and when an Allied drone flies overhead they attempt to shoot it down – but hold the rocket launcher back-to-front and fire on their brothers in the camp. The duo quickly hotfoot it back to England.

The cell’s self-appointed leader is white Islamic convert Barry (Nigel Lindsay), an angry hothead who has joined the cause to channel his nihilism. The cell is completed by Fessal (Adeel Akhtar), a dopey fool capable of making a bomb, and Hassan (Arsher Ali), a rapping joker who doesn’t really wish to martyr himself. This is what Omar has to contend with. They must strike a decisive blow on their own turf but Barry wishes to blow up a mosque and Faisal wants to blow up Boots chemist, to whom Omar responds: “I’m not blowing my guts out over a load of tampons and cotton buds!”