Four Lions

Four Lions is a very intelligent parody on Islamic terrorism. I am quite surprised that this movie was not a bigger deal. It has some very dark scenes, which at the same time are pretty hilarious and quite a bit disturbing. It follows 5 Muslims living in London, who believe they should participate in the Jihad and plan a suicide terrorist attack in the UK. The most fanatic of these Muslims is Barry, the only one who is a born and raised Brit. All of them are pretty incompetent, except for Omar, the main character. Omar is a brilliantly conceived character. He is a good father and husband who leads a pretty ordinary life except for the fact that he plans to blow himself up. About this he talks freely with his family as if it's no big deal and just a job like any other. This scenes are the only ones in the movie which are played pretty much straight. The contrast with the other, often hilarious, scenes is so big that makes this scenes even more disturbing then they would have been if they were in a dramatic movie. But even this family scenes are not without humor, which makes one feel even more uncomfortable. One can't help but laugh, even in this rather horrific scenes. When, for example, Omar tucks his kid in, he tells him a story about one does have to participate in the jihad. For this he uses a metaphor from the Lion King. Only what he tells, didn't happen in The Lion King. His kid rightfully calls him out. His brilliant response: "Yes that's the movie. But I am talking about reality".