Crows, sheep and the terrorists

[Mujahid]

Terrorism is not funny but Four Lions is exceptionally funny. What happens when five ‘anti-patriots’ decide to wage jihad by first training crows to blow themselves up – disaster. As would possibly happen when anyone decides to wage war – except this is not real life – this is British humour and it’s willing to provide laughs in the bleakest of places.

Chris Morris, who researched modern-day terrorism for three years before starting his project, has delivered a portrait of a society decaying. From eating SIM cards in order to avoid being traced to deciding to bomb the internet, the movie has shown how far one can go when an ideology is exaggerated and twisted. Morris introduces five men who are paranoid about ‘women talking back and men playing stringed instruments’, and to put an end to all of this, the men have decided to take matters in their own hands – all they need to figure out is whether Boots is a good enough place to start their jihad from.

Offensive or hilarious – the audience decides. But the film already made the impression it needed to at its premier at the Sundance Festival 2010 and as headlines stated that day, it blew everyone away!

Shyema Sajjad is the Deputy Editor at Dawn.com