Directed by
Sarah Gavron
101 minutes
Rated M
Reviewed by
Sharon Hurst
Brick Lane
Synopsis: Two sisters in Bangladesh lose their mother to suicide. The father soon decides the older sister, 17-year-old Nazneen (Tanishtha Chatterjee) must be sent to London to marry a man she has never met, Chanu (Satish Kaushik). With him she has two daughters Shahana (Naeema Begum) and Bibi (Lana Rahman). Leap forward to around the time the girls are young teens. Nazneen has spent most of her married life accepting her fate, tending to her husband’s every whim, writing long letters back to her sister and pining to return to Bangladesh. To earn extra money Nazneen takes up sewing, and meets the fabric delivery man Karim (Christopher Simpson) to whom she is mightily attracted. A journey of self-discovery begins against the background of post 9/11 racial tensions.Adapted from Monica Ali’s popular novel of the same name, this is a film typical of immigrant stories of struggling to fit in, longing to return to the homeland and the hard decisions that must be made in between. It’s a sweet film, sensitively handled and well-acted, though not breaking any new ground.
Whereas other films have handled the immigrant story with humour (Damien ODonnell’s 1999 East Is East for example), this tackles the problem in a more serious way, which manages to lend a pall of gloom and sadness to much of the film. The music is also noticeably beautiful, but in a very melancholy way. The picture of immigrant life for Muslims in Britain is well balanced, and especially well depicted in the character of Karim, who is initially more of a westernised guy, but who changes post-9/11.
Nazneen lives in London’s famous Brick Lane and, amazingly, never goes outside her immediate environment, except when she shops. Her life is so constrained and enclosed and so when Karim comes on the scene, it is one of the most significant things that has ever happened in her life. Karim is such a contrast to her stodgy husband, and yet, as racial tensions heat up in the neighbourhood, the arc which Karim follows serves to make Chanu seem a more reasonable man.
The director handles very sensitively the whole issue of what love means for Nazneen and it is to actor Kaushik’s credit that he portrays Chanu in a way that elicits strong audience empathy for this man we could well have disliked. Full credit must also go to Chatterjee, who plays her role in an impressively grounded and quiet way, gradually building up to becoming a woman able to find her own voice and speak for her own needs.
The cinematography is also worthy of note, with Robbie Ryan (cinematographer for last year’s Red Road) bringing wonderful visual contrasts to the screen. The Bangladesh scenes, especially in the opening and when Nazneen reminisces longingly on home, are saturated with tropical beauty and intense colour and are in stark juxtaposition to the dreariness of London’s East End.
Despite the modest scale of the film, it has a lovely story arc and excellent performances by all, making it a worthy addition to the genre.
Want more about this film?
Want something different?
