SXSW Preview - "Four Lions"

With all the wonderful music-related shenanigans that go on during SXSW, its easy to forget about the equally significant film/interactive media portion of the festival. It's a real shame too, but not surprising, given that not many free events are offered for the latter part of the fest. However, all the tweeters & facebookers out there have kept non-attendee cinema enthusiasts such as myself sufficiently in the loop.

This year's closing selection for the movie portion of SXSW is a movie that coincidentally is on my watchlist for 2010. The British film, titled Four Lions, has been referred to as a 'jihadist comedy,' and attempts to explore the misgivings of fanaticism. Not surprisingly, it's also been hailed as a 'black, black comedy,' which is a genre that I am typically highly enthusiastic about. British director Chris Morris, known in the UK for his brand of satirist comedy, has already received accolades for the film from sources including Sundance and The Los Angeles Times.

  

//via twitchfilm//

I'll have to come clean and admit that part of my intrigue with this film stems from my own cultural/religious background. All the positive reviews seem to suggest the movie steers clear from portraying any particular religion in a bad light; but how does one show the lighter side of terrorism? How do you tap into the comedy of it? These are touchy, touchy subjects, but good ones to explore. Ergo, I'll still maintain my skepticism until I've seen it.

Clip from the film, which admittedly does look humorous: