'The Lady of Heaven'

BBC News, Cineworld cancels The Lady of Heaven film screenings after protests, 8 June 2022 "The film, which was released in UK cinemas on 3 June, claims to tell the story of Lady Fatima, the daughter of Prophet Muhammad."

Representing Muslims On-Screen

BBC News, Actor Riz Ahmed wants to stop Hollywood's 'toxic portrayals' of Muslims

"The study by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, titled Missing and Maligned, found that fewer than 10% of top-grossing films released between 2017-2019 from the UK, US and Australia featured a speaking Muslim character." Links for the Annenberg report are here. I haven't looked at this in detail yet, but imagine that it will be useful in teaching on media concerns.

British-Somalis Film - See My Dunya

BBC News, The story of British-Somalis in Manchester "Two young British-Somali filmmakers, Mohamud Yusuf Mussa and Yasin Mohamed, have attempted to address this through their short documentary See My Dunya (See My World)."

'Victoria & Abdul' trailer

Forthcoming film, details from IMDb here

'Moslems in Britain - Places' - 1964 film

BFI, Watch Moslems in Britain - Places online From 1964: "Visit the places important to London's Muslim community - both those born in the city and those newly arrived - in this informative short documentary, sponsored by the Foreign Office and the Central Office of Information. The film offers the Arabic-speaking viewer information and reassurance about where they can find community and resources. Among the locations visited are the Islamic Cultural Centre in Regent's Park, the Shah Jehan Mosque in Woking, and the British Museum's oriental room, for a glimpse at its collection of rare copies of the Qur'an."

'Freesia' - film

Keighley News, Theatre company in Keighley makes feature-length film tackling the subject of Islamophobia "Arakan Creative has made Freesia. The film had a £27,000 budget and features a 34-strong cast."

Hip Hop

muslimvoices.org, Hip Hop Link between Culture and Faith for Filmmaker "San Francisco filmmaker Mustafa Davis wanted to see how music became a link between Muslim identity and Western culture."

Hope this one gets shown in the UK - it sources UK and US artists.

“Winds of Change: Cinema from Muslim Societies”

arabnews.com, Winds of Change: Cinema from Muslim societies, 28 Sep 2011 "London’s Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), in collaboration with the academic publication “Third Text,” is presenting “Winds of Change: Cinema from Muslim Societies,” a series of talks and Islamic films." Details: ICA, “Winds of Change: Cinema from Muslim Societies”

'Four Lions'

Times Online, Four Lions, 7 May 2010 "There is something daring and refreshing about a film that tickles the jihadists in the ribs until fundamentalism becomes farce." Four stars (out of five) from The Times.

Two stars (out of five) from the Independent: Anthony Quinn, Four Lions, 7 May 2010 "Morris wants us to provoke us into thinking more deeply about issues of race and belief and national security. It is an honourable aim. But it still left me wishing he'd provoked us into laughter."

Three stars (out of five) from The Sun: Alex Zane, Brass eye on terrorism, 7 May 2010 "Not as funny or as controversial as many would have expected, but there are still many moments of Chris Morris genius here that will have you thinking about it for a long time after the credits end."

Also see Daily Mail, Fury of 7/7 relatives at suicide bomber comedy Four Lions, 6 May 2010 "Relatives of those killed in the July 7th bombings have reacted with fury to a new comedy about bungling would-be suicide bombers.

"Four Lions, the directorial debut of Brass Eye satirist Chris Morris, sees four Muslims from Yorkshire travel south in an attempt to kill thousands at the London Marathon."

I have yet to see this - I'm obviously curious about it, so will check my local multiplex.

'The Infidel' film

Michael Theodoulou, The National, Omid Djalili, UK's Iranian comic, takes on the Muslim-Jewish divide, 12 Apr 2010 Piece on Djlalili and his new film 'The Infidel'. "Despite trying to communicate to audiences that he is a Baha’i, most Britons assume Djalili is a Muslim, which, he said, “I have no problem with … but I’m not trying to represent the Muslim faith.” He added in an interview in 2006 with the Independent on Sunday: “I defend Islam because I feel there’s a lot of Islamophobia in the world right now.”" There are plenty of reviews. This one by Philip French is particulalry useful: Guardian/Observer, The Infidel, 11 Apr 2010 "Ethnic identity and the troubling competition between religious groups have been perennial subjects for both tragedy and comedy, and for the melodramatic and sentimental spaces in between. Now with The Infidel, the author and Jewish stand-up David Baddiel, one of the sharpest and funniest men in Britain, has thrown himself into the fray at a time when the stakes are perhaps higher than ever before. Will he succeed where others have failed and how would his success be measured?"

The official website for the film is here: infidelmovie.com Here's a trailer:



I haven't seen it yet.