Just saw this in a film festival. Sadly it has the potential to be a good topical movie on cultural boundaries, integration and hypocrisy. We get arranged marriages, Sex for college fees, drug dealing, murder, sex tapes, poaching, family rows and a large dollop of last of the summer wine type scenes. It is very confusing and the editing is all over the place. Gabriel byrne's character is a bit of a mess. Characters turn up for a scene (his wife) and are never seen again. Gabriel byrne shoots some bottles of home brew and flies a kite. Dogs seem to mean something. The main female character is excellent but is let down badly by the rest of the movie. The Pakistani wedding looks like a bit of fun. The pivotal final scene is unintentionally funny and it involves taking a very very long time to drive a very very short distance. Will pass a confusing couple of hours.
13 Reviews
High and low points
kosmasp21 June 2021
It's almost a shame ... there are many things here that I did like ... but then it also has a lot of things that make your skin crawl too. Jumping from too easy to the expected .. to the almost ridiculous. Evil can be seen as pure evil ... and then there is comically evil too.
Acting wise there are some really good performances, some of the things the script really lets the actors down though. Quite the shame as I already said. I'd wish there was more of Harvey Keitel in this too, but you can't get everything you want all the time, now can you?
Acting wise there are some really good performances, some of the things the script really lets the actors down though. Quite the shame as I already said. I'd wish there was more of Harvey Keitel in this too, but you can't get everything you want all the time, now can you?
Haram
franka_van_loon12 March 2018
Warning: Spoilers
A Pakistani family living in England. A patriarch who is holding on to the traditions of his culture, by forcing his two daughters to marry money. The oldest daughter Amber who is a lawyer, is living a secret life as a rich-man's mistress and is rebelling her patriarch dad, not to force her younger sister into a marriage, to the same man she herself got away from. Donald (Gabriel Byrne) is helping Amber. Donald has no knowledge of Amber's culture and what they call "honour" so it ends like it ends for many Pakistani girls who are dishonoured.
The first hour I had no clue where this movie was heading to. 2 times I was ready to leave this movie, but glad I did not. It is confusing yes, but I think this movie pictures the distance and understanding of the brutal patriarch Pakistan culture. A culture where a brother, a father or husband kills his daughter, sister or wife, in the name of something called honour? Disgusting yes, but most murders in the west are also related to "crime passionnel" or jalousie, ex boy/girlfriends ex men or wife's.
Now one thing is sure, I need to see this movie at least one more time.
Terrible waste of time
chipradoslavov5 February 2018
First 5 minutes was good...
anouskasherriff3 February 2018
Oh No!
FilmMcCool6 May 2019
This is one of those movies that looks great on paper, an intelligent idea, a Movie worth doing, an idea and purpose worth pursuing. So you get two very good or great actors to make sure it works, Harvey and Gabriel and they do their best but the movie/script just does not work, it comes across too boring. I like both these actors but if the script and pace of a movie is all wrong then the finished article is too.
This is thriller? Slow like hell! Make me asleep! Not recommended!
kwenchow11 May 2019
Warning: Spoilers
The film is about a driver's boss suffer a heart attack and die! He later found out his boss had a prostitute lover! He need to protect her because his boss son have the prostitute sex video! The prostitute also need to protect her sister because her ex-husband want to marry her sister! Her ex-husband actually is a drug dealer! Entire film so slow and really boring! I think the only intensity of the film is every single dialogue have profanity in it! And you can completely fast forward the entire film to the end! The prostitute stabbed by her ex-husband gang and die at the train station! At the prostitute funeral scene, the driver drive a car and ran over the prostitute's ex-husband and kill him! That's all! The end! Actually don't have any fighting scene! Better watching raindrop than this crap!
Watch another
jackywalker-3088119 August 2020
Thought this was going to be an action thriller based on the photo and it seemed to have promise with the cast, but about 45 minutes in with little plot development, mediocre sound and no subtitles, I fast forwarded and then watched the last 10 minutes. Not the best script but the actors did what they could with what they had to work with. Good costumes and cultural references though.
Thought provoking for the discerning viewer
saeedbutt-5395712 January 2018
The film goes beyond the stereotypical view of the average film goer and is no East is East but more like East meets West, with an in your face, look in the mirror type of feel for the discerning viewer.
Much of the filming takes place in the streets of Bradford, and there is some stunning shots and tense scenes which means one cannot help, but feel a degree of sympathy for the push and pull portrayed between safe conservatism and ultra modernism.
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Much of the filming takes place in the streets of Bradford, and there is some stunning shots and tense scenes which means one cannot help, but feel a degree of sympathy for the push and pull portrayed between safe conservatism and ultra modernism.
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Pessimistic view of Pakistan culture in the UK
jordondave-280853 May 2023
(2017) Lies We Tell
CRIME DRAMA
It's like, you look at a poster of acting greats Gabriel Byrne and Harvey Keitel, and you are thinking that perhaps that it's not going to be a bad movie, and then as soon as you watch it, Harvey Keitel is not even there very long. As the Harvey Keitel character was nothing more, but part of the set up between the eventual relationship of Byrne and Keitel's mistress, played by Sibylla Deen.
Donald (Gabriel Byrne) is a long time faithful chauffeur for philanthropist, Demi Lampross (Harvey Keitel). And as soon as Demi dies of natural causes, he leaves Donald instructions of how to dispose of his expensive flat before he resides to a farm. Except that upon of his arrival, Demi's mistress, Amber (Sibylla Deen) shows up as she begins to make herself more comfortable. And at first, they both got off on a bad note, but as soon as the movie moves along, they become more acquainted with one another. We also get to know more a little more about Donald, such as he used to be married but got split up as a result of a death of their daughter. And as far as Amber is concerned, that she is Pakistan who lives with her family and that both her parents, despite living in the UK also practice the culture as well, as she has a 16 year old sister, who is being set up to be married to Amber's ex, Nathan (Reece Ritchie) who makes a living as a drug dealer and criminal. And for some odd reason, Donald unknowingly gets involve with Amber's personal affairs even though he has problems of his own.
To read about the Pakistan culture is more entertaining then watching this movie, as it does not end on a good note if police are never involved, as if it involves harming others is not tolerated in the UK no matter what religion is practiced.
It's like, you look at a poster of acting greats Gabriel Byrne and Harvey Keitel, and you are thinking that perhaps that it's not going to be a bad movie, and then as soon as you watch it, Harvey Keitel is not even there very long. As the Harvey Keitel character was nothing more, but part of the set up between the eventual relationship of Byrne and Keitel's mistress, played by Sibylla Deen.
Donald (Gabriel Byrne) is a long time faithful chauffeur for philanthropist, Demi Lampross (Harvey Keitel). And as soon as Demi dies of natural causes, he leaves Donald instructions of how to dispose of his expensive flat before he resides to a farm. Except that upon of his arrival, Demi's mistress, Amber (Sibylla Deen) shows up as she begins to make herself more comfortable. And at first, they both got off on a bad note, but as soon as the movie moves along, they become more acquainted with one another. We also get to know more a little more about Donald, such as he used to be married but got split up as a result of a death of their daughter. And as far as Amber is concerned, that she is Pakistan who lives with her family and that both her parents, despite living in the UK also practice the culture as well, as she has a 16 year old sister, who is being set up to be married to Amber's ex, Nathan (Reece Ritchie) who makes a living as a drug dealer and criminal. And for some odd reason, Donald unknowingly gets involve with Amber's personal affairs even though he has problems of his own.
To read about the Pakistan culture is more entertaining then watching this movie, as it does not end on a good note if police are never involved, as if it involves harming others is not tolerated in the UK no matter what religion is practiced.
A Waste of Time
valockert8 October 2017
This film is predicated on a very parochial premise, which could have redeemed itself if the humanism had a more profound portrayal. I found the plot and dialogue adolescent and the film was too boring to sit through. There was an ongoing presumption that the audience would have a cultural knowledge of Pakistanis in England, which left me feeling both bewildered and annoyed. The scenes were poorly linked and so much dialogue was either unbelievable or irrelevant to the story.
My feeling is that the entire story was executed by a director with good intentions but a shallow and tired premise of the cultural problems of a woman attempting to transcend cultural boundaries. The pathos failed to draw real emotion and minimal comedy could have been explored more. This movie is a waste of time and money.
My feeling is that the entire story was executed by a director with good intentions but a shallow and tired premise of the cultural problems of a woman attempting to transcend cultural boundaries. The pathos failed to draw real emotion and minimal comedy could have been explored more. This movie is a waste of time and money.
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