Yasmin" gives a very good impression of the problems that aroused for Muslim people in England after the 9/11 incident. The film is about a young Muslim woman called Yasmin who tries to find her own identity between her two lives: that of a modern British woman and the traditional Muslim life she leads at home. She has to deal with rejection by her English colleagues, an unwanted marriage that her father has arranged for her and a brother who slips more and more into his very own world of fear, hate and terror. It is very interesting to watch Yasmin take her decisions, almost finding answers to her questions and then experiencing something that makes her change her views all over again. The tense atmosphere of the film is created by the settings; the scenes are mostly set in poorly lit, small and kind of filthy rooms which make you feel claustrophobic. And also the music of the film can make you feel uneasy. In the beginning, it is very quiet. Then Yasmin's brother Nasir starts to sing lines from the Koran, and the sound of that noise echoing in the empty streets of the town makes you shiver. I think it's sad that there is so little interaction between Yasmin and Nasir during the film. Because that means you don't really see anything of Yasmin's emotional reaction to Nasir's change of mind and his decision to join a terrorist group. I can also not comprehend Yasmin's decision to help Faisal when he comes out of prison. Before he went there, she just wanted to get rid of him. When she finally got the chance to do so, she didn't take it. Yasmin could have simply made him say "I divorce you" when he came out of prison, but she took him home and suddenly started to care for him. She also started to wear her traditional clothes when she went to town, and read the Koran. I don't believe a grown up and independent woman can change her views and her life overnight and let a book and a religion that she has never found so important before dictate her decisions. Another thing I'd like to criticize is the ending of the film. I find the very open ending kind of disappointing. In the beginning, Yasmin was confused about who she was, then 9/11 came, took her brother and her friends away, and in the end she was not really one step closer to a solution to her problems. She did change during the film, but you don't really get an answer to whether it was for the better. Maybe this is supposed to express that a solution to the problems between cultures has not yet been found and so on, but I still think the ending is lame. It kind of leaves you hanging in midair. All in all, the film is about some very bad things that happen to a poor Muslim girl, and that is very touching and exciting to watch, but it actually is what I hear and see every day. I don't have to watch a movie to learn it.
Review of Yasmin
