Year of release: 2004
Directed by:
Gurinder Chadha
Shots of an aeroplane in the opening sequence mark the arrival of the UK-based NRI Balraj and his American friend Darcy, two single men in possession of a good fortune and in want of a wife, to Armitsar. Like Austen’s Mr and Mrs Bennet, Chadha’s Mr and Mrs Bakshi are looking for eligible suitors for their four daughters, Jaya, Lalita, Maya and Lakhi. An Indian wedding (the first of a total of four featured in the film) provides the social setting where Lalita and Darcy, Jaya and Balraj first meet. In keeping with the source novel and the generic conventions of the romantic comedy, the paths of their courtships are rocky. However, it is not the parents’ objection to the inter-ethnic romance the couple has to overcome. Admittedly, Darcy has to be educated in all things Indian – be it dancing, drumming or even keeping his Indian-style trousers from falling down – to recognise that his ethnic snobbery and arrogance vis à vis ‘Hicksville, India’, as he derogatively calls Amritsar, are out of place before he is worthy of the beautiful bride Lalita. In all other respects, Bride and Prejudice downplays the cultural difference, emphasising instead the commonalities between Indian and Western cultures. Lalita is every bit as independent and assertive as any Western woman and, except for the fact that she wears stunning saris (as well as Western clothes), has little in common with idealised notions of traditional Indian femininity promoted by Bollywood.
Read further details
Filed under: Asian British | Inter-ethnic romance | Wedding / Marriage
Year of release: 1997
Directed by:
Thomas Arslan
Thomas Arslan's second feature film and part of his Berlin-trilogy is a slow-paced milieu study of German-Turkish youth in Berlin-Kreuzberg. The film depicts the every day life, domestic conflicts, dreams and disappointments of three siblings and their aimless, meandering strolls through the Kreuzberg district.
Read further details
Filed under: Turkish German
Year of release: 2004
Directed by:
Saul Dibb
Referred to as British Boyz N The Hood, compared to Juice and Ratcatcher, inspired by Ken Loach's Kes, Saul Dibb's feature film debut Bullet Boy is the story of a futile attempt to break out of a criminal milieu that ends with the protagonist's killing.
Read further details
Filed under: Black British | Coming of age | Crime | Mothers | Sons
Year of release: 2011
Directed by:
Verena S. Freytag
Verena S. Freytag's film centres on Pellin, a young single mother with three children living in a high-rise block in Berlin. She is of Turkish descent but her ethnicity is of no relevance to the story. Pellin tries to make ends meet as a tattoo artist but loses her job and is about to lose custody for her children when one of her children accidentally takes some ecstasy pills which Pellin's drug-dealing boyfriend left in the flat. Her last chance is a mother-child-cure on the Baltic sea in Germany.
Read further details
Filed under: Crime | Mothers | Turkish German
Year of release: 1995
Directed by:
Karim Dridi
Ismael and Mouloud, two brothers of Maghrebi descent, make their way to Marseilles, from where the younger of the two is to be sent 'home' to his parents in North Africa.
Read further details
Filed under: Coming of age | Crime | Journey | Maghrebi French
Year of release: 1993
Directed by:
Mathieu Kassovitz
Café au lait is an ethnic romantic comedy that centres on Lola, a beautiful light-brown-skinned woman, of Caribbean descent and Christian, and her two lovers, Jamal, an African diplomant’s son and a Muslim, and Félix, a white, working-class Jew. She is expecting a baby but she is unsure which of her two lovers fathered the child and enlists the support of both to help her through pregnancy and motherhood.
Read further details
Filed under: Inter-ethnic romance | Mothers | Secrets
Year of release: 2007
Directed by:
Abdellatif Kechiche
When Slimane, a North African shipyard worker in the French Mediterranean town of Sète, is pushed into early retirement, he decides to use the redundancy money to buy an old boat in the harbour and open a couscous restaurant. The film charts the various obstacles he encounters and the support his extended family and friends provide along the way.
Read further details
Filed under: Daughters | Ethnic food | Fathers | Maghrebi French
Year of release: 1999
Directed by:
Thomas Arslan
Can and his girlfriend Jale live with their young daughter, Meral, in Berlin-Schöneberg. Can is a small-time dealer and errand-boy for drug boss Hakan, who has to keep his customers supplied within his narrowly staked out territory.
Read further details
Filed under: Crime | Fathers | Turkish German
Year of release: 1995
Directed by:
Aditya Chopra
Simran and Raj, both NRIs brought up in Britain, meet and fall in love on a grand European tour. However, Simran is promised in marriage to the son of a family friend who lives in Punjab. Simran's father, Chowdary Baldev Singh, who prides himself on having retained his cultural values while making a living as a small shop owner in London, is intent on strengthening the bonds with his country of origin by arranging a marriage between his daughter Simran and the son of a family friend, Kuljeet, in Punjab, India.
Read further details
Filed under: Fathers | Patriarchy | South Asian diaspora | Wedding / Marriage
Year of release: 1995
Directed by:
Malik Chibane
Züli Aladag's feature film debut Elephant Heart is a coming-of-age story about a young boxer in the amateur league, who dreams of going professional but has to learn what sacrifices he has to make if he wants to reaslise his ambition. At the centre of the strory is Marco - played by Germany's rising star Daniela Brühl (Good Bye, Lenin! and The Edukators) - a young amateur boxer searching for his own identity.
Read further details
Filed under: Maghrebi French | Wedding / Marriage
Page 2 of 8 pages < 1 2 3 4 > Last ›
