Highly Overrated But Still Good

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

„Yasmin" gives a very good impression of the problems that aroused for Muslim people in England after the 9/11 incident. The film is about a young Muslim woman called Yasmin who tries to find her own identity between her two lives: that of a modern British woman and the traditional Muslim life she leads at home. She has to deal with rejection by her English colleagues, an unwanted marriage that her father has arranged for her and a brother who slips more and more into his very own world of fear, hate and terror. It is very interesting to watch Yasmin take her decisions, almost finding answers to her questions and then experiencing something that makes her change her views all over again. The tense atmosphere of the film is created by the settings; the scenes are mostly set in poorly lit, small and kind of filthy rooms which make you feel claustrophobic. And also the music of the film can make you feel uneasy. In the beginning, it is very quiet. Then Yasmin's brother Nasir starts to sing lines from the Koran, and the sound of that noise echoing in the empty streets of the town makes you shiver. I think it's sad that there is so little interaction between Yasmin and Nasir during the film. Because that means you don't really see anything of Yasmin's emotional reaction to Nasir's change of mind and his decision to join a terrorist group. I can also not comprehend Yasmin's decision to help Faisal when he comes out of prison. Before he went there, she just wanted to get rid of him. When she finally got the chance to do so, she didn't take it. Yasmin could have simply made him say "I divorce you" when he came out of prison, but she took him home and suddenly started to care for him. She also started to wear her traditional clothes when she went to town, and read the Koran. I don't believe a grown up and independent woman can change her views and her life overnight and let a book and a religion that she has never found so important before dictate her decisions. Another thing I'd like to criticize is the ending of the film. I find the very open ending kind of disappointing. In the beginning, Yasmin was confused about who she was, then 9/11 came, took her brother and her friends away, and in the end she was not really one step closer to a solution to her problems. She did change during the film, but you don't really get an answer to whether it was for the better. Maybe this is supposed to express that a solution to the problems between cultures has not yet been found and so on, but I still think the ending is lame. It kind of leaves you hanging in midair. All in all, the film is about some very bad things that happen to a poor Muslim girl, and that is very touching and exciting to watch, but it actually is what I hear and see every day. I don't have to watch a movie to learn it.

The film "Yasmin" by Kenny Glenaan tells the story of a young Pakistani woman from North England and the problems she has to cope with after the terrorist attack of 9/11. Yasmin lives in two different worlds. On the one hand, she has adapted the lifestyle of the western civilisation, and on the other hand, she has to obey certain rules of the Islamic faith to fulfil her father's wishes like the bogus marriage with her cousin Faysal . After 9/11 her colleagues and friends confront her with mistrust and suspicion . Her husband is being arrested and her young brother joins a fundamentalist organisation whereas Yasmin tries to become aware of her own identity and religion. Yasmin is a strong and vivid main character. She is likable and very human,that is why you can identify with her most. Other important characters are Yasmin's father and brother. Her father is a very religious man, sometimes a bit narrow-minded but mostly reasonable. His son Nazir used to be a drug dealer but after the terrorist attacks a fundamental Islamic organisation finds a way to influence him and finally makes him join them. Nazir is fascinated by the fundamental ideology whereas his father is strictly against this kind of organisations. From my point of view one cannot reject any of the characters, they all have reasons for their behaviour. Due to his totally different cultural background and since he cannot understand his new surroundings at all, Faysal is more a tragic character than anyone you would absolutely reject, and Nazir is convinced that he is doing right. I guess that it was Glenaan's intention to show how unfairly many Muslims were treated after the terrorist attack of 9/11 and that their religion does not make people criminals. Probably he wanted to show their difficult situation from another point of view. I see the strength of the movie in the metaphorical storytelling realised through the good camera work and sound, and especially through the convincing performance of the actors. What I dislike is the unclear ending of the movie. One can only guess how Yasmin's life is going to be afterwards what the film showed. Due to the great plot and actors I recommend the film.

Lia MarthThe movie "Yasmin" by Kenny Glenaan, produced in 2004 ,tells the story of a young Muslim woman in England. She tries to combine living the new western lifestyle, working in town and seeing an Englisman called John with being a good Muslim daughter to her old religious father. This is not always easy but she has her ways to deal with it. All of a sudden on September the 11th 2001 everything changes. As tension between the western and the Islamic world increases people start to treat Yasmin differently. Because she is Muslim her colleagues make fun of her and she is suspended from work finally . And as if that had not been enough, she gets into trouble with her family, too. The cause of Yasmin's problems with her father is the marriage with Faysal, who she only married on her father's will so that he can get the English citizenship.Yasmin rejects Faysal, and so it is even harder for him to get used to the new culture and circumstances. But not only Faysal has his problems with living in England. Nasir, Yasmin's younger brother has been a drug dealer for quite some time. This might not be the best avocation but with September 11th Nasir's live takes such a rapid turn that one would even figure this job, to be better than what he sees as his philosophy of life then. He meets new people who sway him so extremely that he decides to become part of a fanatic branch. This is the feature of the film that I figure the most impotent. Yasmin is a good example of all the everyday struggle Muslims had to handle in this time. But the story of Nasir is the most touching part of the whole film. It brought tears to my eyes. He decides to go to Palestine. He will most probably kill himself! He is really convinced of all this hatred that he is preached . This is so dramatic to me because he could be every young Muslim having problems in a culture that is not his origin and searching for a sense in life.I recommend this film to everyone who has a good heart and who sympathizes with people that might not have such a good and easy life as most of us Germans do.

Film review, "Yasmin" 18/03/07 Falco Peisert The British movie – Yasmin -, released in 2004, deals with the life of a Pakistani woman, in Britain, and how the terrorist attacks of 9/11 influence her life.Yasmin suffers from a bogus marriage with her cousin. In addition, her father, a deeply religious person, hinders Yasmin in adopting the western lifestyle, therefore she has to keep secret the way she dresses and behaves.After the terrorist attacks, her life changes completely. She loses colleague's acceptance and becomes a suspect for the police. Because she loses faith in her friends accepting her innocence of the terrorist attacks, she finds back to the Islam and does not reject it any longer. In the end, she has lost her brother, who has become an extremist.The film focuses on Yasmin and her family members.Yasmin's father is strict and religious therefore he cares about the mosque after work. He educates his son Nasir religiously to be a good Moslem. The father thinks a lot about their old home in Pakistan and his wife, therefore he often dreams of old memories but he does not see reality and his daughter's problems. He also condemns his daughter's decision to leave Faysal. The father obviously rejects any hatred against the western culture after the terrorist attacks and he is very sad and deeply disturbed after Nasir's departure to Pakistan.Yasmin is responsible-minded. She accepts her father's view about the Islam, but she wants to be independent. Yasmin is not prejudice against anyone and she is open-minded to British culture. She accepts her responsibility, to care about her family and to adapt to theIslam pattern in her district.In my view, the director wants to show that immigrants can successfully be assimilated tosociety. But that does not mean that prejudices are eradicated. The situation forimmigrants in a society accepting certain cultures can change and that's the point.I would recommend the film because the depicted impacts for immigrants after the terroristattacks are not fictional.