Culture

Directed by: Josh Appignanesi, (3.5/5).

Mahmoud (Omid Djalili) could be your average Brit. He’s an entrepreneur who hates cab drivers, walks around in soccer shirts, drinks beer and watches 70s music videos on MTV. He doesn’t need to be told that he isn’t a perfect Muslim by his son Rashid, who wants to marry the beautiful step-daughter of a well known Islamic fundamentalist. Mahmoud hates fundamentalists and his own understanding of the Quran is sketchy at best. However, in order to get the marriage approved, Mahmoud is going to have to show he’s made of true Muslim stock.
 
While cleaning out his recently deceased mother’s house, Mahmoud discovers an adoption certificate amongst all the files. Shockingly, it turns out that Mahmoud is Jewish. Too scared to tell his family, he tries to befriend his hated Jewish neighbour, cab driver Lenny Goldberg (Richard Schiff). Lenny, a Jewish American with porn tapes littered through his house, teaches Mahmoud Jewish history and culture, while ridding him of his anti-Semitic misconceptions. All this so that Mahmoud can meet his true father, who is lying on his deathbed in a Jewish rest home. Meanwhile, Mahmoud also has to improve his Muslim devoutness. In order to appease both sides, Mahmoud participates in a bar mitzvah and a pro-Palestine rally, sleeps over in the mosque and burns Jewish symbols.
 
The Reluctant Infidel is a hilarious movie that illustrates the complex religious scene in Europe. It brings down the walls separating Jews and Muslims through humour, but not without touching important issues. The film portrays the diversity of views within Islam and Judaism, the similarities between the two and the meaning of religion itself. When Mahmoud literally tells the world he’s Jewish, Rashid’s marriage is cancelled and Mahmoud is left alone, drinking on the streets.
 
The Reluctant Infidel is well worth the watch. Religious identity is the film’s raison d’être, but also its source of its semi-PC humour. Though religion is a hard topic to tackle, the movie is light and the humour truly British.