The Infidel (2010)

An identity crisis comedy centred on Mahmud Nasir, successful business owner, and salt of the earth East End Muslim who discovers that he's adopted - and Jewish.

Director:

Josh Appignanesi

Writer:

David Baddiel

Stars:

Omid Djalili, Richard Schiff, Archie Panjabi

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Igal Naor	...	Arshad El-Masri
Stewart Scudamore	...	Tariq
Omid Djalili	...	Mahmud Nasir
James Krishna Floyd	...	Gary Page (as James Floyd)
Archie Panjabi	...	Saamiya Nasir
Leah Fatania	...	Nabi Nasir
Stuart Antony	...	Drummer
Scott Walters	...	Delivery Guy
Mina Anwar	...	Muna
Amit Shah	...	Rashid Nasir
Soraya Radford	...	Uzma
Ravin J. Ganatra	...	Fahad (as Ravin Ganatra)
Christian Lees	...	Bar Mitzvah Twin Louis
Jonah Lees	...	Bar Mitzah Twin Sammi
Richard Schiff	...	Lenny Goldberg

Storyline

Based in a London suburb Mahmud Nasir lives with his pretty wife, Saamiya, and two children, Rashid and Nabi. His son plans to marry Uzma, the step-daughter of Egyptian-born Arshad Al-Masri, a so-called 'Hate Cleric' from Waziristan, Pakistan. Mahmud, who is not exactly a devout Muslim, he drinks alcohol, and does not pray five times, but does agree that he will appease Arshad, without whose approval the marriage cannot take place. Shortly thereafter Mahmud, while going over his recently deceased mother's documents, will find out that he was adopted, his birth parents were Jewish, and his name is actually Solly Shimshillewitz. He conceals this information from his family, and with the help of his neighbor, Leonard Goldberg, tries to understand the Jews, their religion and even locates his birth-father, who is on his death-bed in a nursing home. Mahmud does not know that Arshad has been checking into his background, has videotaped him setting fire to a Jewish cap during a protest, and ...

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Plot Keywords:

cell phone video | cell phone | jewish | muslim | religion | 

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Taglines:

Is It a Muslim? Is It a Jew? No! It's...

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

David Baddiel: The movie's writer can be seen on the TV show The Wright Stuff (2000), which Mahmud watches.

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Goofs

After Mahmud sees that Lenny has parked his taxi cab on his parking cones, he begins to walk over to Lenny's house to confront him about it. On the way, he walks past a car and the camera crew is reflected in its side.

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Quotes

Mahmud Nasir: Here's the thing about our clerics: some of them really do teach us about the holy Qu'uran, and that's fantastic. Some of them are out there protecting our repressed brothers and sisters. And some of them are beardy-weirdy fuckers who make shit up!

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Alternate Versions

Mahmud's road-rage scene from the outset has been sound-dubbed for strong language (UK video version), with the C-word being uttered only once. In the UK cinema print, Mahmud shouts the C-word many times towards the taxi driver.

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Connections

References Seinfeld (1989)

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Soundtracks

Tennessee Wig Walk
Written by Bonnie Lou
Words by Norman Gimbel © 1953
Published by EMI Music Publishing Limited
Francis Day & Hunter Limited
Courtesy of Gusto Records, Inc.

User Reviews

Funny. Deals with difficult topic. Shouldn't be offensive

I felt disappointment at the end. But not because there is anything wrong with it. Just that I really want something to hit the nail on the head with Israel/Palestine/Antisemitism/Islamophobia and get rid of this huge problem. Though why would one expect a comedy to do such a thing? The reason I am so desperate to see an end to these conflicts is because they are so difficult to resolve. And because, in my opinion, they are the biggest stimulus for all the terror nonsense going on these days. Why young men get their legs and more blown off every day, people get bombed and shot, air strikes destroy ambulances, loads of people go around being racist, security checks take forever and Western nations end up torturing people thus ruining their credibility when trying advocate human rights. What a mess!

This topic is under publicised considering how important it is. Too little is said. And when I see/hear people discussing it I too often see/hear people rigidly stuck to a position from which no meaningful compromise of opinion can be reached without heat, anger, shouting, conflation of issues etc.

The film does address the issue and I think boldly. Inevitably some people will find this offensive to both Muslim and Jewish people. I am neither (though I know plenty of both). But I like the fact that it has characters coming out with all the racist BS that gets said - and makes it sound ridiculous like it is. And there are 'good' and 'bad' characters from both sides.

The thing about the racist 'BS' mentioned above is that a lot of the criticism that falls on entire religions/races is appropriate when aimed at individuals belonging to those groups. It's the blanket generalisations that are wrong and annoy me. I felt that it helped to demonstrate that it's individual idiots, not idiotic peoples, that give huge numbers of people a tarnished reputation in the eyes of those unwilling to think too hard about all of this. And I am happy this film has done that.

I suspect I might review how highly I think of this film at a later date. Did it seem less funny than it could have because of the subject? Or was I willing it to seem funny because I was happy with what it was trying to do? I know I will laugh upon remembering some scenes and ideas. It should be watched.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 June 2010 (Ireland)

Also Known As:

The Infidel

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$2,817,080

Company Credits

Production Co:

Slingshot Productions, Ombadsman, The Salt Company International

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1