Four Lions [M]

The “Four Lions” are four young Muslims living in Sheffield, who become radicalised and decide to become suicide bombers. Planning to blow themselves and leave their mark on the London Marathon, the four fall into a trap of squabbles, conflicts of interests, spiritual ideology, and lethal errors. 

According to the cover of this DVD, this film is “funny”. The cover literally says it over and over and over and over and over again. So I rented it, figuring that I need to take an active interest in every new release that comes into work. This is a very dark comedy and, although I did laugh a few times and I did team with the characters, all in all, I just don’t understand the humour. This is my own fault, obviously, but it still won’t stop me from writing that in a review. 

The “Four Lions” are four Muslims living in Sheffield, who become radicalised and decide to become suicide bombers. Planning to martyr themselves and leave their mark, literally, on the London Marathon, the group, prior to the execution of the plan, fall into the trap of squabbles, conflicts of interest, weakness of nerves, spiritual ideology, and fatal errors. 

I think this is the first film in which I’ve come a cropper. I honestly don’t know what to write about it. It was a very dark comedy, focusing on a theme that is a very delicate one in modern society and drawing comedy from that theme, which made it all very dark and sometimes sinister. 

I felt that the film relied on the sudden shock from the audience to move it through and, without giving too much away, some of the shocks were very sudden and unexpected. 

I suppose the film is an insight into a certain form of companionship that even exists within groups that are perceived as being threatening and wicked. The companionship between the “four lions” was a rather aggressive one, but it hammered home the messages that they were trying to covey. 

Starring Kayvan Novak, Nigel Lindsay, Riz Ahmed, Adeel Akhter, Preeya Kalidas, Mohammad Aqil. Arsher Ali, Julia Davis, and Craig Parkinson, Four Lions was a dark comedy, but an interesting look at companionship of another kind.