Production Status: In Production/Awaiting Release
Logline: Drama about a girl growing up in East London’s Bangladeshi community.
Genres: Art/Foreign, Drama and Adaptation
Running Time: 1 hr. 41 min.
Release Date: June 20th, 2008 (limited)
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some sexuality and brief strong language.
Distributors: Sony Pictures Classics
Production Co.: U.K. Film Council, Ingenious Film Partners, Film4, Ruby Films
Filming Locations: London, England, United Kingdom India
Produced in: United Kingdom
Sarah Gavron’s adaptation of Monica Ali’s novel, Brick Lane, finally arrives in your local multiplex trailing clouds of controversy. Firstly there was the reception of the book itself, resented by some in East London’s Bangladeshi community, who disliked Ali’s unflinching portrayal of their world, and threatened to burn copies of the book as part of their protest, supported by do-gooding liberals who ought to know better – yes, I mean you, Germaine Greer, you hypocrite. Members of said community demanded that filming be moved out of Tower Hamlets, objecting to the picture being painted of their neighbourhood. And then, most ironically of all, Prince Charles pulled out of the Royal Premiere screening. (Charles is happy to share a platform with the clerical bigot Maulana Delwar Hussain Sayeedi at the East London Mosque, but finds it prudent to avoid controversy by cancelling the Royal Film Premiere.) The most ironic thing of all is that both film and book are actually a plea for tolerance. And they are works of fiction, not pretending to be an historical account of a community, but the story of one woman and her particular circumstances. Why is it that white people can be depicted as all kinds of evil, twisted, monstrous freaks, but as soon as anyone from an ethnic minority sticks their head above the parapet they are some sort of traitor to their race?
