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: So, uh, Jews?
Lenny Goldberg: Yeah.
Mahmud Nasir: Tell me about them.
Lenny Goldberg: [laughing] Okay. Uh, let's see: Where shall we start? I know, let's start with me - the archetype. The American Jew. As American as knish and Seinfeld and slavish support for Israel. You know, like my fellow countrymen, I didn't think there were any other Jews in the whole fuckin' world, especially not Britain. Britain, land of hope and pork. A Jew in Britain...
[laughing]
Lenny Goldberg: That's just weird. That's like an American driving a Hackney carriage.
[With accent]
Lenny Goldberg: "What ...
[...]

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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

Featured in The Wright Stuff: Episode #13.1 (2010)

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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

Excellent story, intelligent and sensitive acting, and absolutely hilarious

I rented The Infidel about 3 hours ago on pay-per-view being expecting a good but misfiring comedy about Jews and Muslims with some fairly obvious humour. However the as ever excellent Omid Jahlili (apologies for any misspellings), and Richard Schiff were the 'odd couple' of this really charming and heart-felt tale which was at times heart-stoppingly funny largely because of the deadpan delivery and wry observational comedy of the two principles. Richard Schiff teachng Omid to say 'oy' before moving on to 'vey' was so funny, but the real heart of the film was the telling of how fragile the racism of religion is and how based it is on misunderstanding, grandstanding, ego and attempting to 'secure the place in one's own community'. If it has a message it's that everyone is prey to their own culture's prejudices even when those prejudices are based on sometimes almost commicaly absurd rubbish,. A true classic. And a perfect selection of leading men.

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