Ae Fond Kiss...

Plot synopsis:
Set in Glasgow, the film tells the story of the Khan family. Casim is the only son of Pakistani Muslim immigrants to Scotland. He has a younger sister, Tahara, and an older sister Rukshana. Casim's parents, Tariq and Sadia, have arranged for him to marry his first cousin, Jasmine, and Casim is more or less happy with the arrangement. He then meets and falls in love with Roisin, an Irish Catholic immigrant (who is a part-time music teacher in Tahara's Catholic school). Roisin books a short holiday break for them both on seeing an advert in a travel agent's shop window, and while on holiday Casim tells her about the arranged marriage his family are planning for him. They then have to decide whether their love is strong enough to endure without the support of their respective communities.
At the same time, rebellious Tahara struggles to find herself between the bullying of some Scottish schoolmates and her Pakistani relatives. Meanwhile, Rukhsana loses her fiancé because Casim's new relationship shames the family. Roisin loses her job because the Catholic school's direction does not accept her relationship since she is a married – though separated – woman and because she and Casim are living together.
Roisin is finally moved by her hierarchy to a non-denominational school, Casim confronts his family, begging them to respect his choice before returning to her, while Tahara leaves to study journalism at the University of Edinburgh against her parents' will.

Tags: romantic, psychological

Review:
In this case, it's Casim Khan (Atta Yaqub), a second-generation Pakistani immigrant, and Irishwoman Roisin Hanlon (Eva Birthistle) in Glasgow, Scotland.
It's so easy for us to sympathize and empathize with her because she draws us in with a wonderfully subtle, nuanced and open performance.There's also a superb cameo from Gerard Kelly as a sanctimonious priest.We rarely get to see films such as "A Fond Kiss" in the U.S. Films that bravely tackle social issues, expose our prejudices and force us to think and understand other people and cultures.
Seeing movies like this always brings us a strong feeling of nostalgia.A Fond Kiss is the love story between Casim, a young Pakistani man, and Roisin, a young Catholic woman, with the backdrop being modern day Scotland.
Despite the predictable problems that arise, the story is accompanied by a strong performance from the entire cast, and the use of common Hollywood love-story gimmicks are refreshingly absent from the plot.I must note that the performance by Casim's father was especially moving for me; you want to judge him quickly for his hypocrisy and bigotry, but soon feel for his predicament.
I am reminded of the problems I have had with my father-in-law; for the longest time I hated him so much, but only now I see that he's one of the most caring and loving individuals I have ever known, and any problems he gave me was simply his way of testing my devotion to what matters most to him, his daughter and family.The ending scenes were also beautifully woven together.
Aside from 'location-spotting' the Glasgow geography, there was a feeling throughout the film that's difficult to pin down (or articulate!); just a kind of "yeah, that's right, these people and these feelings are real".Lead-wise, a great line up, Atta Yaqub plays a quiet Casim, and Eva Birthistle a brilliant but natural Roisin - there's nothing that stops you believing that this is a couple in love.As for the rest of them - some excellent characters and some good acting.
The strength of the whole cast comes through though, and there's certainly no feeling of any tokenism or stereotype characters.One actor who doesn't appear to have had much notice in any write-ups I've seen is Shabana Bakhsh, who plays Tahara Khan, Casim's youngest sister.
Every romance film should be this way; the lovers bickering, throwing each other out of the apartment, taking shots at each other's families and generally not getting along in between periods of being so intensely in love that they forget everything but each other.Sadly, most romance movies aren't like this at all.Ae Fond Kiss, or Just a Kiss, is a gritty account of two blue-collar workers in love, one a Scottish girl and the other a product of an immigrant Pakistani family, all taking place in the not so glamorous city of Glasgow during the late 20th century.
The story line is believable, especially today, and the sub plots were intriguing.I'm not normally much for romance films, unless there are a lot of naked chicks wobbling around, or the popcorn is really good, but I liked this movie quite a bit.
It would make an excellent date movie, giving you something to discuss while providing that all important element of romance that leads to your hand sliding off the gear shift and squeezing her thigh while you make some pseudo-intellectual point about one of the various issues in the film.There is no feel-good Hollywood ending here, it just sort of fades out, leaving you wondering what would happen with such a couple.
"Ae Fond Kiss" does not shy away from the truth and attempts to deal with issues in a far more serious and believable way than such films as "Bend it Like Beckham".
But still, she never seemed to understand any viewpoint different to hers - not even the fact that her boyfriend was torn between his love to her and his family.The film exemplified very well the different mentalities of, on the one hand, a Western city single, completely unattached, and, on the other hand, an immigrant community where the family and honour are highly valued.I had some trouble with Roisin's relationship towards her Catholicism: we were never shown if she was faithful or just a nominal Catholic who wanted to remain so because she wanted to teach in a Catholic school.
This is a honest and simple film telling the love story of a young Muslim Pakistani raised in Glasgow and a young Irish teacher (a splendid performance by ms Birthistle).
This has been shamefully demonstrated by the late controversial Dutch mediocre director van Gogh in his last film before he was killed.While a love story between two human being should be a non-issue and to much of a movie screenplay, this one is not.
The portrayal of the family meeting where the eldest sister were arranged to meet a young man and her parent in laws were striking.I feel sorry with the so-called liberal Hollywood bunch where they do not dare to pick interracial love story, which unfortunately still an issue there.
It tells the story about a Pakistani Dj and student named Casim Khan who lives in a city in Scotland with his father, mother and two sisters.
One day when he is at the Catholic school which his younger sister named Tahara attends, Casim meets a teacher and pianist named Roisin Hanlon whom he immediately takes a liking to.
Subtly and finely directed by European filmmaker Ken Loach, this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated from multiple viewpoints though mostly from the two main characters viewpoints, draws a gentle and incisive portrayal of an Irish woman who falls in love with a man who is promised away to someone else and a Glasgowian-Pakistani student named Tahara who wants to leave Glasgow to go to a school in the capital city of Scotland where she can become a journalist.
While notable for it's naturalistic milieu depictions, fine cinematography by English cinematographer Barry Ackroyd and production design by English production designer Martin Johnson, this character-driven and narrative- driven story about the adversity a man and a woman of different ethnicity are faced with after they find each other, depicts two humane and interrelated studies of character and contains a great score by English composer George Fenton.This atmospheric, conversational, somewhat historic and at times humorous love-story from the early 2000s which is set in Spain and Scotland in the early 21st century and where a natural romance between two human beings leads a man into a dilemma which entails that he has to go against his family's wishes to be with the woman he loves and a woman into a conflict with the parish priest at her school, is impelled and reinforced by it's cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, subtle continuity, eloquent and natural intimacy and the involving acting performances by Irish actress Eva Birthisle, Scottish actor Atla Yaqub in his debut feature film role and Scottish actress Shabana Akhtar Bakhsah.
In this case there is nothing to worry about.At times it feels a bit like a storyline from a British soap opera until you realize that it is Ken Loach and he always goes one step further - the sex scenes are almost embarrassingly intimate, the arguments are seriously intense and there are no tidy conclusions.
This film dealing with the inter-racial relationship between a Muslim pakistani young man and a catholic irish woman all set in Glasgow, Scotland, does an excellent job in giving insight in the family values of pakistani and Indian muslims in a predominantly catholic British environment.
I gave it 5 out of 10, due only to the good acting of the majority of it's cast.It doesn't seem to be able to make up it's mind whether or not it's meant to be funny or serious and it certainly doesn't delve into a major issue with the intense passion that is strikingly apparent in Loach's other films (e.g. Ladybird 10/10) and the conflict created by multi-racial relationships is dealt with far better in "Bend It Like Beckham".
The love scene is unnecessary and very unLoach like - in fact, its inclusion plus the cutting away too soon from the conflict between the two lovers gives the film it's superficial feel.My other favorite directors (Mike Leigh, Polanski, Von Trier) have disappointed me as well so it's proves that even the genius of the world can make errors, so I'm still a major fan of Mr Loach but have to say, looking forward to something much better next time..
With his Pakistani family long resident in the UK, Casim meets, and falls in love with his young sister's Irish Catholic music teacher.
Both Muslim and Catholic tradition reject mixed marriages and relationships so the couple face grave obstacles to their happiness - starting with Casim's engagement to a cousin he hardly knows.
In Ae Fond Kiss Ken Loach does what you wish other film-makers would do, and does so, with a surgeon's skill: it's blunt trauma, but without a blunt instrument: here are real lives, real issues, and yet there is a universal undertone here that rings true.The tale of how on earth two people from wildly opposing backgrounds might get a chance or not to be with each other is way better than romantic drama - it raises all those questions about family, culture, and identity that have been part of the United Kingdom from the 70s onwards, but never tries to resolve it with platitudes or to simply offer simple solutions.This is above all, in its own way, a deeply romantic film.
Roisin Hanlon, music teacher at a catholic school, Irish, catholic 'divored' gorree in Scottish Glasgow and the Glaswegian Casim Khan, second generation Pakistani immigrant in a Muslim family; Casim Khan, trained as an accountant, but working as a DJ and with plans to have his own disco.This the background for the age-old conflict of star-crossed Romeo and Julia.
Both sides, the Catholic priest, a kind of 'father'-figure for Roisin and the Islamic father hide behind prejudice, are hurt by cultural clashes, widen the gap of social differences, discriminate as good ass they understand themselves, worried.
The movies ending is a family plot by the parents and their daughter Rukhsana in which Casim and Roisin have to act, unknowing, their part.
When the two leads first meet in Ken Loach's A Fond Kiss, it's out of a negative item in the form of some racial harassment of a young man's younger sister; someone he was picking up from school.
The rest of the film will dedicate itself to the relationship of this young man and woman, the sequence setting up an overall tone or outlook on events played out within, an observing of a good thing being born out of a terrible thing; a systematic realising of the good and the bad that plagues life, as later on certain events and revelations will arise that'll have the ability to both tear and sway entire families onto plateaus of bad, seemingly without much in the way of a positive outlook.The leads are British born of Pakistani descent Casim (Yaqub) and Irishwoman Roisin (Birthistle); two people based in the Scottish city of Glasgow.
The idea is fairly clearcut, in that tone of skin is irrelevant as is racial background and ethnicity and that if two people can connect with one another, then that is a beautiful thing.The film is certainly more lower-key Loach than one might expect, A Fond Kiss taking a step forward and mingling with two people of different racial ethnicities as struggles and items that exist to block their fondness for one another arise within the respective camps: an organised marriage Casim wants nothing to do with and issues the Catholic Church has with him in challenging Roisin to break off the affair for the good of her career.
The film is of a relatively routine nature by Locah's standards, running on a Romeo and Juliet infused premise as life in the shoes of each of these respective people whose issues, aspirations and families clash with both a British based culture and and their own.
For Roisin, her life and aspirations are threatened by way of issues within the field of her career as Casim's first generation and consequently strictly traditional parents threaten to destroy what Casim wants in terms of a partner.It'd be fair to say the affair takes its toll on the two, with Casim's business deal that'll enable him to build his own nightclub (one that runs on an expansive sense of equality) and an arranged marriage Roisin will have to learn of sooner of later hovering around above all of this and acting as a consistent off screen threat; their relationship hitting a major buffer the one time they're out of the nation and therefore further away from problems linked to job, family and so forth during a half term holiday in Spain.
Spain is a radiant locale Loach uses to push their relationship away from mere flirtations, rides home and the odd drink with each other and into a more passionate and embracing bond as the bodies of these two are exposed more on the warm, welcoming beaches as the systematic feelings they have for one another becoming equally exposed; all the while under glowing cinematography as the location of Spain glistens in an interesting juxtaposition.The film proves Loach can construct a love story whilst systematically maintain an eye on how the greater items in each of these persons lives can also affect them.
The film's story here doesn't carry as much dramatic tension nor visceral involvement in each of these people's problematic lives as later-in-the-decade efforts such as 2006's The Wind That Shakes the Barley did nor the shared, tri-directorial piece entitled 'Tickets' that Loach made with two other directors in 2005; his segment revolving around young British individuals struggling in a foreign territory as the timer ticked down and the train neared its destination as the guard loomed about the place.
A Fond Kiss is an admirable effort, engaging and interesting in its own right but I found a hollow space where I wanted to feel for these people and their plights with modern society; respective cultural clashes and then later religion.
After a fracas at school in which a young Muslim girl is being chased by bullies, she meets and begins a relationship with Casim Khan (Atta Yaqub), a Pakistani disc jockey in Glasgow clubs who plans to open his own club.
Though Ae Fond Kiss is basically a romantic drama, it has a great deal to say about issues of class, race, and religion and does so in a very forthright manner.Casim, a second-generation Pakistani, is very close to his parents, Tariq and Sadia (Ahmad Riaz and Shamshad Akhtar) and his two sisters, Rukhsana (Ghizala Avan) and Tahara (Shabana Bakhsh).
'What about your heart, and my heart?' Roisin replies.Casim tells her that he has personally seen the racism directed towards his family and believes that adherence to his culture's values is the community's best hope for survival.
I watched this movie expecting to be told about social problems, that is Ken Loach's typical film-making.
Loach cleverly uses the illiberal catholic priest to show that religious rectitude is not the sole preserve of the Moslem's.This is not the first British film to deal with love across the cultural divide but it is a good example of naturalistic film making..
The elder sister "Rukhsana" claimed to be an aerobics teacher - as they say in Glasgow - "aye right hen...." - she was a little on the hefty side to be an aerobics teacher and her acting was about the worst in the whole film - just watch the scene in the cafe with Roisin (the female lead).
Well, it's not so gritty but it certainly doesn't flatter any of the characters.It's a simple story of two people falling in love from different sides of the fence and their families/communities opposing the relationship.
I think Ken could've explored that further and not just dismiss it like he did.Other than that, it's a very strong and real-to-life film that I highly recommend because the subject matter really deserves more debate..
"Ae Fond Kiss" manages to find appealing freshness in a tale probably older than "Romeo and Juliet." There have been many, many films that have dealt with the conflicts between young lovers from different ethnic or racial backgrounds and there's strengths and weaknesses in how director Ken Loach and his frequent collaborator writer Paul Laverty avoided some clichés while stridently emphasizing some others.
There's not the wit and the sophistication of the 1985 Frears/Kureishi collaboration My Beautiful Laundrette, which still stands as perhaps the classic British cross-cultural love story and also one of the most novelistically complex films in English of the past two decades.Maybe A Fond Kiss has its emotional impact for just that reason: it sticks firmly to the saga of Casim and Roisin: all external events and characters are seen exclusively in relation to them, though the emotional pain felt by Casim's parents at "losing" their son is vividly shown.
And it's just a wonderful love story for a change.At times in this film their relationship seems impossible.
But 'Ae Fond Kiss' (love the title, though, that attracted me in the first place!) film is not only predictable, it's irritating and you expect more from Ken Loach than an unbelievable love story with extensive love scenes that have nothing to do with the story.
His devout Muslim parents have arranged for him to marry his first cousin, Jasmine.He is more or less satisfied with the marriage arrangement until he meets and falls in love with Roisin Hanlon,played by Eva Birthistle,an Irish Catholic working as a part-time music teacher at his sister's Catholic school.
Coming to her rescue is her brother Casim (Atta Yaqub), who chases them back inside the school only to meet, and fall in love with Roisin (Eva Birthistle), a gorgeous, streetwise Irish Catholic schoolteacher.