l_rawjalaurence
HONOUR is a difficult movie to watch. Centering on the idea of honor killings, a practice that not only prevails in Muslim communities but in other cultures as well, it focuses on the way in which Mona (Aiysha Hart), 'transgresses' her family's sense of ethics by falling in love with a Punjabi man Tanvir (Nikesh Patel). Spurred on by her elder brother Kasim (Faraz Ayub), who works for London's Metropolitan Police by day, the family engage a bounty- hunter (Paddy Considine) to pursue Mona and discover her whereabouts. This he agrees to do, while at the same time despising the family, especially Mother (Harvey Virdi), who spends most of her time at home working as a seamstress.The movie opens explosively with the dénouement, and then goes back to tell the story of why Mona was considered to 'transgress'. The ideas might seem shocking to non-Muslims, but Shan Khan's film shows how important it is for young women - especially - to forge the right marriages, even if it means them being transported back to Pakistan to marry a spouse chosen for them by their family, and agreed upon (normally on financial terms) by the groom's family.Shot in neo-documentary style around the streets of the London suburb of Southall, a major center for the Asian community, HONOUR makes much of the private/public distinction: by day Kasim spends his time working for an organization that explicitly pursues anti- racist policies (in the wake of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, which exposed large-scale racism in the Metropolitan Police). By night he appears to embrace just the kind of racism that the police try to eradicate, as he abuses Tanvir - and at one point holds him captive. Yet director Khan does not criticize Kasim for this; on the contrary he suggests that this is a way of life for many of London's Asian communities.The real villain of the piece is Considine's bounty-hunter, who has no sense of belief other than to obtain as much money as possible. He is the true racist in the sense that he makes no effort to understand anybody's motives; all that matters for him is that the job should be done and he should receive due financial reward. It is people like him who help to perpetuate the racist stereotypes that prevent members of different communities from integrating with one another in inner cities - not just in London, but everywhere.HONOUR offers no comfort of an easy resolution. On the contrary, it suggests that second or third generation Asians living in western capitals have to acknowledge the presence of cultural difference, and observe the conventions laid down by their families, even it that means sacrificing the so-called 'freedom' of the west for a more confined existence. This might seem 'unfair' in Mona's cause, but only because she has been brought up in a culture that supposedly values free will.
C.H Newell
There are several reasons why I really enjoyed Shan Khan's Honour. First, I really enjoy Paddy Considine. He is a fine actor, as well as director, but here it's really put to the test. He plays a highly unlikable man for most of the feel, though we do see him become someone else through the process. Second, the script is really fantastic; it's edgy, raw, there is grit to the themes within. Essentially, the story is about a young British Muslim girl who is targeted for honour killing after her brothers discover she plans to run off with a young Punjabi man. After their attempts to reel her in slowly come to a drastic and failed end, the family, along with the mother, hire a bounty hunter in London to track her down, and it just so happens he is a racist; though for a racist, he certainly knows the culture, even their language, well.In a day and age where there is a lot of conflict over extremists and fundamentalists in various religions around the world, I can imagine it was tough to make a film about Muslims and honour killing. The film is a tough one. At times it is brutal, violent, messy. Other times it comes across as a great crime thriller. The script is tense. The story is told on film in a non-linear fashion, giving us a look at what led to the family's decision to kill the daughter. I think Khan did a great job with the script, and it translated well to screen.The acting came top notch here. I was very impressed with Aiysha Hart who played Mona, the young girl on the run from her own family, as well as Faraz Ayub and Shubham Saraf who played her brothers. Considine was absolutely incredible though, and it's his performance which truly shines above all else. The look and feel of the film was gritty, something I always enjoy. How everything looked, dark and sort of grim, really fit the subject matter and the tone of the film.All in all I have to give the film a 9 out of 10. Everything worked together to create a really wonderful film.I think the message here is presented through Considine's character. In the beginning, he is truly racist; he hates Muslims, any person of colour. Even though he deals with Muslims, he seems to have a disdain for them. He has white supremacist ink on his body, including an Aryan tattoo, which he later tries to singe off. By the end, after he has come to see the inner workings of the extremist Muslim circles and he sees his own behaviour mirrored in their fundamentalist, violent beliefs. Through others and their hatred, the character understands his own, or better yet he comes to reject it, understanding it is only hate, it is nothing but thoughts and misconceptions and foolish notions. This is a must-see film. I highly recommend it. I don't give it a full 10 stars, only because I felt there was something missing. Perhaps a little more of the past behind Considine's character, though we get bits and pieces, would have made it a perfect film. Though it's still an incredible movie. It inspires hope, that people who hate can turn around, somehow, some way.
emelio-lizardo
"Honour killings are violent acts of vengeance, committed by male family members against female relatives ..." This is patently untrue. Honor killings do not discriminate by gender. Women simply get the publicity.But it seems every writer must follow Feminist (gender Marxist) dogma and carry water for "the war on women" screed.Again and again, bad male culture, poor 'heroic' women victims and the white knights that save them to prove how strong they are.This inanity keeps cropping up again and again by a whole generation of writers brainwashed since childhood to despise the penis.
