Rent East is East (1999)
3.6 of 5 from 103 ratings
1h 32min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- George Khan, proud Pakistani and chip shop owner, rules his family with a rod of iron. He thinks he's raising his seven children to be respectable Pakistanis - but this is Salford in the North of England, in 1971. For the seven kids of George Khan life is one long compromise. Tomboy Meenah prefers playing footie to wearing a sari, hippie Saleem pretends to be studying engineering when he's really at art school, heart throb Tariq has got a reputation as a local Casanova, and Sajid hasn't even been circumcised yet! In the Khan's cramped terrace house with its scant indoor plumbing, anarchy erupts on a daily basis.
- Actors:
- Om Puri, Linda Bassett, Jordan Routledge, Archie Panjabi, Emil Marwa, Chris Bisson, Jimi Mistry, Raji James, Ian Aspinall, Lesley Nicol, Emma Rydal, Ruth Jones, Ben Keaton, Kriss Dosanjh, John Bardon, Gary Damer, Albert Moses, Jimmi Harkishin, Rosalind March, Kaleem Janjua
- Directors:
- Damien O'Donnell
- Writers:
- Ayub Khan-Din
- Others:
- Leslee Udwin
- Studio:
- Cinema Club
- Genres:
- Comedy, Lesbian & Gay
- Collections:
- A History of Cinemas in Films, BAFTA Nominations Competition 2024, Films & TV by topic, The Big Match: Gregory's Girl v Bend It Like Beckham, A Brief History of Film..., Top 10 Films By Year, Top 10 Films of 1999
- Awards:
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 15/06/2009
- Run Time:
- 96 minutes
- Languages:
- English DTS-HD High Resolution 2.0
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- DVD Regions:
- Region 2
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 1.78:1 / 16:9
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Deleted Scenes
- Trailer
- Interwiews
- Behind The Scenes
- Director's Commentary
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Reviews (2) of East is East
Cult film - East is East review by CS
This film had been recommended to me by many friends and contacts, don't know why I never caught it before, but so glad i did...deffo hire this
0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.
Excellent Comedy Drama with some Serious Themes - East is East review by GI
A great social comedy/drama that cleverly manages to be very funny whilst also dealing with some very serious issues including racism, forced child circumcision, domestic violence, arranged marriage and homophobia. That sounds quite a list but as this is a story of a mixed race family in early 1970s Salford the issues are treated as everyday occurrences and in some cases just an accepted part of their lives. For instance the racism elements here are the continual use of racist name calling that pervades society and was the norm in 70s Britain. This is essentially a clash of cultures narrative with family patriarch George Khan (Om Puri), a Pakistani immigrant, who has married an English woman, Ella (Linda Bassett) and they've had seven children. The couple have built a small fish and chips shop business but live in a small terraced house with no bathroom or inside toilet, a common thing in England at this time. George expects his children and his wife to be obedient to him but the issue is the children are fully English and reject his control. This leads to some serious problems in the family as Ella has to try and keep her family together whilst restraining George from losing control as he struggles with the loss of status in the local Pakistani community. His attempts to marry his sons to the daughters of other families is met with failure, a major catastrophe for him personally. The children who range is age from mid 20s to the youngest of 10 are constantly on their guard against their father finding out the little ways they revolt against his wishes. There are laugh out loud moments but also some very serious scenes as George more and more loses his control. This is a very thoughtful and clever film and viewed today it really hits home with the frightening impact of the cultural clash and the rejection of religious dominance over the lives of young anglicised children of immigrants. This is often a film billed as comedy, and in many ways it is yet it's also a serious family drama. It's definitely a film to revisit if its been awhile since you've seen it.
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