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July 7, 2005
A tale of prejudice
With emotion filled blue eyes and an almost quavering voice, Scottish filmmaker Kenny Glen-aan explains one of the reasons he made Yasmin, a touching story of prejudice suffered by British Muslims in the aftermath of September 11. “I spoke to a young Asian child, and pointing at his skin he shouted, “This is my Star of David, I wish I were gay instead, at least I could hide it.” I found that extremely disturbing. We did a year long research on the issue, believe me, what we found proved yet again that truth is stranger than fiction.”Yasmin is told from the point of view of a young second generation Pakistani woman living a sort of double life in Britain, but the film ultimately focuses on Britain’s Muslim community before and after 9/11, whose entire existence was traumatized by events totally outside their control. The director thought it essential that the voice should come from within the Muslim community.
I met Glenaan and the protagonist, Archie Panjabi (East is East, Bend It Like Beckham) as well as the producer, Sally Hibbin, the force behind Ken Loach films, at the Locarno film festival, Switzerland where Yasmin had its world premiere in August 2004.
I ask Glenaan, why he, a white person, decided to make a film about this essentially Asian/black problem. “Besides me and the producer, there is also the scriptwriter Simon Beaufoy (Full Monty), also white,” he says. “I think it is an important British story to tell. Initially we were planning to shoot a feature based around the riots in Bradford and Oldham in the summer of 2001, then came 9/11. It had a tremendous effect on the everyday lives of Britain’s Muslim community; many found themselves ostracized at work, victimized by the authorities and generally treated as second class citizens.”
Panjabi interjects with an anecdote, “Till 9/11, when somebody asked me where I came from, I simply responded, British. After 9/11 one day I was walking down the street and people started calling me ‘terrorist’. Suddenly I thought maybe I’m not really British, but just an Indian living in Britain. It’s caused me an identity crisis, like it did, I’m sure, to most of the Asians living in the UK.”
The film is set in the northern English town of Keighley, Yorkshire. Despite the documentary feeling it gives, Yasmin narrates the vicissitudes of a woman living in two worlds, with her tradition-bound family at home, but working as an ordinary Briton the moment she reaches her place of work. She drives an old VW Golf model and changes into jeans away from prying eyes on her way to work.
Glenaan says, “I wasn’t really trying to make a film that was didactic or full of social issues to resolve. One reason I brought in Simon Beaufoy was that I knew he would give the story a cinematographic structure and would be able to bring in that northern wit and humour. Working class people use humour as a kind of weapon. It’s a way of averting their tragedy of poverty.
“I just wanted to tell a story which reflected the reality of what was happening to a lot of people at a critical moment in our history whereby events happening in far away places dramatically change the lives of people without them realizing it — an ordinary citizen one day becomes a terrorist the next. The authorities that should be defending them turn against them as if they were common criminals.”There is private drama within social drama. On her father’s instructions, Yasmin has quietly married Faysal, a shepherd and a distant cousin from Pakistan, who can’t speak English. Yasmin is determined to divorce him against the wishes of her father.
The moment Faysal secures a British passport out of this marriage she only sees it as ‘a marriage of convenience.’ She is secretly in love with a white colleague, who is equally warm towards her. We wonder where this inter-racial romance, still in its infancy, is going to take us.
Then the Twin Towers collapse in New York, the British police absurdly begin harassing the Muslims; at work Yasmin finds bin Laden scribbled on her locker and enquires, “Who is bin Laden?” Friends turn sarcastic, her unofficial ‘boyfriend’ remains unexplainably undecided as to whose side to take.
One day police in riot gear brutally raid Yasmin and her family’s home and her husband is arrested on suspicion being a terrorist. Yasmin pushed to the verge of a full identity crisis, begins questioning her place in this so-called British society. This sudden turn of events transforms the narrative into a traumatic documentary.
The director sheds some light, “For the Muslims in our country, it is similar to being Irish in the 1970s and `80s, presumed guilty until found innocent. It would have been easy to put lots of white characters in there or have love across the racial, social barriers and a Romeo and Juliet type of situation, but I didn’t want the Asian characters to be caricatures or stereotypes. I wanted them to be dead ordinary, I didn’t want to tell a negative story about that community and hoped to dispel the myths and rampant Islamphobia that have grown out of the September 11 tragedy.”
How much truth is there in all this? “Everything is based on incidents that have really taken place,” confirms Glenaan, “When we first came to Keighley and began our research, asking lots of questions, the local Muslims got very suspicious of our intentions. They thought we were undercover agents and were thus unwilling to co-operate much.
“We spent a long time doing our research, getting to know the people, their ambiance, opinions and at the same time explaining what we were trying to do. Gradually we gained their confidence and recruited people from the local community to play in our film.
“However, it proved impossible to find a young woman to audition for the lead part let alone play it. Finally we asked Archie Panjabi to work with us, luckily she accepted.”What was it like working with amateur actors? “I found it educational,” responds Panjabi, “their approach is so much more natural.”
Despite the heavy drama, there is, thanks to Beaufoy, moments of humour that banish the oppressive feeling of unjustifiable injustice and infuriating prejudice unfolding before us. Faysal’s attempts at communicating with Yasmin and her young brother in Urdu generates light heartedness as does his attachment to a goat he’s looking after in the unlikely setting of a British Muslim home in Yorkshire.
Sally Hibbin reveals, “The goat was the most temperamental actor on the set.” Glenaan adds, “At one point it disappeared altogether and we had to find a new goat. Unfortunately it had no horns and the technicians had to tie temporary horns around its head so that we could finish the shooting.”
I ask Sally Hibbin how the film was received in the UK. “We showed it to a group of mostly British Muslims, they giggled and got angry at the predictable places.”
The message of Yasmin is clear, in the words of Glenaan. “An invisible wax is being played out in front of our eyes,” serious identity problems have arisen. In the film, Yasmin, confused by the rejection she has received, is psychologically moving back to her origins. She puts on a scarf.Should she stop wearing jeans, she wonders. Her younger brother is considering moving to Palestine to start a new life. In the meantime they’re still in Britain, trying to fit in, maintain an identity and respect family traditions.
Kenny Glenaan’s film career began with two shorts, The Whirlpool and Ten Guitars, that he made in mid-1990s. After completing BBC drama and Sundance director’s courses, he spent the next six to seven years directing highly popular TV series such as Eastenders, City Central II and III, Hope and Glory, Cops II and III, Attachments and finally, Buried in 2002.
Before Yasmin he directed the features; Family Affairs (1997), Gas Attack (2001), which won several awards, and Spark in 2003.
What is the busy filmmaker going to do next? He is going to shift his attention to the unscrupulous football agents who abuse the rights of and exploit footballers from the subcontinent in a film called Ducain’s Boys.
Glenaan seems set on disclosing prejudice, wrong doing and injustice wherever he can find it, but wants to tell it in his own style following the same advice given by the English TV and film producer Tony Garnett to Ken Loach, “You research and research and research, then you go away and make it all up.” — Dawn/Khaleej Times Service
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