11/09/2007

Saturday, October 27----------The London Film Festival is not necessarily against the idea of premiering controversial films... in fact, they generate good press and audience interest. Locally, it was Brick Lane ( Brick Lane) [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the adaptation of the best selling novel by local author Monica Ali, that generated the most media buzz. The film had its world premiere last evening and was the subject of much discussion in the local press and on local media outlets.

That the film has been completed at all is a cause for some celebration. The production was dogged from its very start by protest groups who felt that the books portrayed the Bangladeshi community in a negative light. The novel tells the story of Nazneen, a young woman who is sent from rural Bangladesh to London for an arranged marriage. Once arrived, she finds a new sort of independence by cultivating some new friends, having an affair with a younger man and ignoring her husband's demands to return with the family to Bangladesh.

When director Sarah Gavron attempted to shoot the film in the actual neighborhood surrounding London's famed Brick Lane in the east end, protest groups from the local Bangladesh community dogged her every move. An organization was set up with the title of Campaign Against Monica Ali's Film Brick Lane, which stated its purpose front and center. The group threatened to burn the book at mass rallies and promised to disrupt filming by means that could become violent. The group's head, Abdus Salique, was quoted as saying "If Ali has the right to freedom of speech, we have the right to protect our community's dignity and respect." The anti-BRICK LANE hysteria made for some strange political allies and bedfellows. Feminist pioneer Germaine Greer spoke up against the book and the film, by saying that "the community has the moral right to keep the filmmakers out of their neighborhoods."

Although Salman Rushdie, the award-winning novelist who has had his own share of problems from protesting Muslims, declared the protests "sanctimonious, philistine and disgraceful", the film's producer, Film Four, took the advice of the police and decided to film crucial scenes in other locations in the city. The political correctness even reached Buckingham Palace, with the Prince of Wales pulling out of a planned royal charity screening of the film next week. Despite the controversy surrounding both the book and its film adaptation, the London Film Festival decided to include the film as one of its prime Galas, although police presence was quite thick in Leicester Square in case there were any protests or violent outbursts (there were neither). The film is scheduled to open in the UK on November 16 and has been sold internationally, including to Sony Pictures Classics in the US, which also has a late November release date.

Sandy Mandelberger