Yasmin (2004)

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Better Late Then Never

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

First of all, the story line was non existing. I didn't see the point of the film until 9/11 occurred. All I witnessed were bad representations of stereotypes, bad acting and you could say offensive characters. We'll start with that fact that only one person could act and that was Renu Setna who played Khalid (the father). He portrayed a good example of a traditional Muslim father and for that I have to give him credit. Although I have read that Archie Panjabi is a wonderful actress I did not see this the main point being her accent was horrendous. Not even to mention Steve Jackson's (John) diabolic performance - he can not act to save his life.Also I have to say that the fact the scene of this poor elderly woman not realising the cameras helping the Muslim lady being discriminated was left in to draw the audience - shows how bad the rest of the screen writing was.

„Yasmin" gives a very good impression of the problems that aroused for Muslim people in England after the 9/11 incident. The film is about a young Muslim woman called Yasmin who tries to find her own identity between her two lives: that of a modern British woman and the traditional Muslim life she leads at home. She has to deal with rejection by her English colleagues, an unwanted marriage that her father has arranged for her and a brother who slips more and more into his very own world of fear, hate and terror. It is very interesting to watch Yasmin take her decisions, almost finding answers to her questions and then experiencing something that makes her change her views all over again. The tense atmosphere of the film is created by the settings; the scenes are mostly set in poorly lit, small and kind of filthy rooms which make you feel claustrophobic. And also the music of the film can make you feel uneasy. In the beginning, it is very quiet. Then Yasmin's brother Nasir starts to sing lines from the Koran, and the sound of that noise echoing in the empty streets of the town makes you shiver. I think it's sad that there is so little interaction between Yasmin and Nasir during the film. Because that means you don't really see anything of Yasmin's emotional reaction to Nasir's change of mind and his decision to join a terrorist group. I can also not comprehend Yasmin's decision to help Faisal when he comes out of prison. Before he went there, she just wanted to get rid of him. When she finally got the chance to do so, she didn't take it. Yasmin could have simply made him say "I divorce you" when he came out of prison, but she took him home and suddenly started to care for him. She also started to wear her traditional clothes when she went to town, and read the Koran. I don't believe a grown up and independent woman can change her views and her life overnight and let a book and a religion that she has never found so important before dictate her decisions. Another thing I'd like to criticize is the ending of the film. I find the very open ending kind of disappointing. In the beginning, Yasmin was confused about who she was, then 9/11 came, took her brother and her friends away, and in the end she was not really one step closer to a solution to her problems. She did change during the film, but you don't really get an answer to whether it was for the better. Maybe this is supposed to express that a solution to the problems between cultures has not yet been found and so on, but I still think the ending is lame. It kind of leaves you hanging in midair. All in all, the film is about some very bad things that happen to a poor Muslim girl, and that is very touching and exciting to watch, but it actually is what I hear and see every day. I don't have to watch a movie to learn it.

Yasmin.Yasmin Husseini, a young Muslim woman from Pakistan, lives with her father Khalid, her brother Nazir and her "husband" Faysal in a working-class area in England. At home, she is the Muslim daughter. On the way to work, she is changing clothes, getting into her red car and is off to the Western world. Life works. But with 9/11, things change and Yasmin has to make a decision… The director's intention with the film "Yasmin" was to show people what was really going on after 9/11 in and against Muslims in England and how suspicion and racism, so called Islamophobia, has increased. The movie is about the right to adapting to a different culture without forgetting about where you come from. The impressive thing about the movie is the cruel thing about it at the same time: It is very close to reality. Experiences Muslims made after 9/11 are united in the story of Yasmin and her family. But what makes the film that realistic are not these references only, it is the actor's performances as well as their purity. That is why the audience comes close to the protagonists and their destiny. All in all, "Yasmin" is a film that makes you thinking. Worth seeing!

The film "Yasmin" by Kenny Glenaan deals with the difficulties of a young Pakistan woman who tries to manage a western life, free of tradition, as well as a religious Muslim life.Yasmin, protagonist, lives in a mill town in the north of England with her father, Khalid her brother Nasir and isolated Faysal to whom she has been married by her parents so that he can stay in England. Nevertheless Yasmin wants to be divorced as soon as possible. Together with her English colleague John she works for a social service and she seems to be far more away from than she actually is, always trying to distract herself from the problems of her migrant community life. Soon she finds herself facing an unfamiliar experience: Islamophobia caused by the incident of 9/11. John still wants to care and plays down the bullying of their colleagues. Suddenly Faysal is suspected of being involved into 9/11 so that Yasmin and her family and John are taken into custody. This is when John is told by the police that he is friends with a woman who is married to a man that is most likely involved into terror activities.With "Yasmin" Kenny Gleenan has made a really versatile film that deals with prejudice but makes a most unprejudiced statetment. What I really like is that the viewer is able to comprehend every character's actions and opinion and nobody is judged too harshly. The film also leaves enough space to form your really own opinion. I can imagine that especially viewers of Muslim origin who live in a European country can easily identify with Yasmin's conflict.