'Britz' by Peter Kosminsky

Review for Emel Magazine - December 2007 issue

Written and directed by Bafta award winning filmmaker Peter Kosminsky, the two-part feature length series starred Rizwan Ahmed (The Road to Guantanamo) and Manjinder Virk (Bradford Riots) who play brother and sister, Sohail and Nasima. Their joint upbringing is that of any traditional Muslim family in Bradford but both eventually choose ideologically opposing paths.

Sohail is an ambitious student training to be a barrister in London who chooses to work at the MI5. Eager to play a part in British Security he feels an honour of debt to the country of his birth. The terror trail leads him back to his community in Bradford where not even his closest friends and family are above suspicion.

Sohail’s sister Nasima is a medical student in Leeds and although passionately politically active becomes disillusioned with and alienated from the status quo and so begins to question her methods of protest.

Both siblings lead double lives that are split depending on whether they are at home with their parents or with friends at university or work. The conflict that the dualism between a British and a Muslim identity can bring is depicted well.

Nasima is angered and frustrated with British foreign and domestic policy from the start and her story is more compelling and multi-dimensional as a result. Her story was like watching a car crash in slow motion and the heart-wrenching destruction of this young woman with so much potential was tragic.

We see how utterly despondent she becomes when her best friend falls foul of Britain’s anti-terror law (control orders) and commits suicide. Who is to blame when someone as vulnerable as Nasima chooses such a path and finds escaping to a Jihadist camp as her only recourse, when her family and own country of origin don’t present a safe haven.

The most criminal manipulation of Nasima is when she completes her training at the Jihadist camp in Rawalpindi, NW Pakistan. Now unsure of carrying out an attack, the Jihadi’s present her with a photo of her fake-funeral. Her identity as ‘Naz’, known and loved by those most dear to her, ceases to exist and at this realisation she agrees to the mission.

It ends with Nasima’s suicide video-note explaining her actions as a protest rather than being in the name of God and/or Islam. Does this herald such atrocities occurring as a result of injustices against Muslims taking place in the West?

Has it further fuelled paranoia about Brit Muslims and as a result, opened the door for more portrayals of us as extremists for entertainment value or because a balanced account is needed? I doubt that the latter would attract the commissioners at channel 4.

Praise where praise is due; Virk does a superb job of bringing to life a character who she herself (in the guardian) described as being more hated in the current climate than a serial killer.

Sohail offers snippets of independent thinking which is to be praised, especially when scolding a potential Muslim girlfriend, played by Priya Kalidas, who drags him to a talk given by a radical Muslim cleric.

His ideology opposes his Muslim peers and we see this when he is interviewed by the MI5 and talks of owing a ‘debt of honour’ to Britain. As second generation Brit born Muslims, does this mean we are second class citizens, forever indebted and owing everything to this country? Worrying and scary ground indeed.

We learn that MI5’s enemy profile are male educated second generation ipod wearing Pakistanis. I’m sure now they will have added a female educated second generation gramophone holding Pakistani profile. Perhaps we should think twice before going on a protest march.

Kosminsky has taken on the most sensitive and controversial issue, and artistic license aside, the responsibility that lies in doing so is profound. There is a fear that it will further entrench the views of Daily Mail readers and middle England that either we talk, walk and do as ‘they’ do, and even jump into bed with them, or we are all extremists.

Still, Britz was enormously captivating and has sparked and provoked such lively debate and not just because it deals with such a controversial issue, but due to Kosminsky’s master storytelling of these characters that meet such a tragic end.