East is East

Title of a play by Ayub Khan Din, first performed at the Royal Court Theatre in 1996. Title of a movie written by Ayub Khan Din, directed by Damien O'Donnel, released in 1999. The title is taken from "The Ballad Of East And West" by Rudyard Kipling (1889).

Plot

The film is set in Salford in 1971, back then a part of the county Lancashire, a smallish town in Northern England. It deals with the bicultural family Khan. Father George coming from Pakistan and his wife Ella, a Briton with Irish roots, have got six boys and a daughter. Since George aims at conserving the traditions of his home country his children want to conform to the British culture.

During a Christian procession the children have to hide from their father observing the parade. Nazir, the eldest son, cancels his marriage, which has been arranged by George, because he turns out to be homosexual. As a result, he is expulsed from the family. When George realizes that his youngest son Sajid is not circumcised he immediately makes up for it against Sajid's wishes. The children discover that George has arranged two further marriages for Abdul and Tariq with two not very attractive daughthers of a rich Pakistani from Bradfordplant. In his anger Tariq secretely destroys the wedding clothes George has bought. The religious Maneer, who has had a conservative attitude up to that moment, tries to hide the damage. However, George find him with the torn clothes and behaves aggressively towards him, especially because Maneer does not want to reveal his brothers. Hereby he distances himself from his father and the traditions. Ella wants to protect her son from his father's attacks and steps in between so that George hits her face.

When the wives to-be visit the Khans' house together with their family the situation escalates even more. It becomes obvious that the Khan children have assimilated themselves to the British culture and the other family indignantly leaves the house. During a further conflict between George and Ella he becomes violent again. The children protect their mother and George leaves. He though seems to change his attitude for his family in the end.

Success and important awards

Despite a budget of only £1.9 million East is East was very successful, having brought in over $ 4.1 million in US cinemas alone. In the UK the film made £12.3 million only via rentals (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166175/business).

East is East won several awards, such as the Alexander Korda Award for the Best British Film at the BAFTA Awards or the British Comedy Award. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166175/awards?ref_=tt_awd ).

References

Sander, Daniel. “Klischee ist Klischee“. Spiegel Online. http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/kino/der-film-west-is-west-als-nachfolger-von-east-is-east-startet-a-838650.html (accessed June 25, 2017).

https://www.epd-film.de/filmkritiken/east-east (accessed June 26, 2017).

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166175/awards?ref_=tt_awd (accessed June, 2017).