Customer Reviews

A Fond Kiss

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Versions of tragic love alliances have been dramatized many times in fiction and cinema. Bi-cultural, interracial couples of different religions confront difficulties which usually tear them and their families apart. Director Ken Loach brings freshness, fairness and poignancy to his film "A Fond Kiss," (from a poem by Robert Burns), that left me thinking, days later, about the dilemmas it presents. Considerable credit must be given here to the extraordinary cast. Atta Yaqub is Casim Khan, a second generation Pakistani living in Glasgow. His counterpart and sweetheart, Roisin Murphy, is a young Irish Catholic woman, both strong and sensitive in nature, played by Eva Birthistle. The two truly light up the screen and make their characters palpably real with their outstanding performances. The supporting cast also does a superb job. Their roles as Casim's family and friends are important ones. In most dramas of this sort, the main focus is on the star-crossed lovers. Here one gets an opportunity to meet Casim's family also, to empathize with them, and appreciate the gravity of their problem.

The Khan family has lived in Glasgow for over 40 years. While the parents are integral members of their Pakistani community and devout Muslims, their three children, brought up in the west, have totally different life experiences. The eldest daughter Rukhsana, (Ghizala Avan), combines traditional lifestyle with a modern education. She is happily engaged to an attractive Pakistani man, also well educated, whom she met through family arrangements. The couple suit each other well. One gets the feeling they would have been drawn together if they had met on their own. The youngest daughter Tahara, (Shabana Bakhsh), wants to study journalism at the University of Edinburgh, where she has applied against her fathers wishes. He doesn't want her to leave Glasgow and the family circle, even though the course she wishes to pursue is not available in the bigger city. She also wants to go clubbing with her friends. Big brother Casim even objects to this, and he works in a club and takes dates there himself.

Casim, a DJ by night, is planning with best friend Hammid, (Shy Ramsan), to raise the money necessary to open their own club in Glasgow. There are potential investors in London who appear to be seriously interested. Casim's day job is at his father's grocery store. One day, when he goes to his sister Tahara's school to pick her up, she introduces him to talented music teacher Roisin Murphy. Ms. Murphy is a gifted pianist and quite lovely to look at. She had been married briefly, at a young age, but the relationship dissolved, unofficially, as quickly as it was entered into. She is employed part-time at a strict Catholic school with stringent moral standards.

The two make eye contact, there is a rush of chemistry and they begin to date, just casually, never realizing the amount of suffering they will cause each other and those who love them. Casim is engaged to his first cousin in Pakistan. Initially, he never thinks to tell Roisin. During a holiday weekend on the Spanish coast, (a two-for-one deal), Roisin learns of Casim's family obligations and becomes very upset. It is during this period that the young couple realize they are in way over their heads.

Casim is a Muslim, he can never be otherwise. He is a Pakistani, and no matter how westernized he may become, his reality will never change. It is obvious that he is dark, especially against Roisin's fair skin. Although she is does not have a racist bone in her body, others do, throughout Glasgow. Then, the question of potential children comes into play. How will the kids be raised? The Khan family is wonderful. Who wouldn't want the maternal Mrs. Khan, (Shamshad Akhtar) to be their mother or a close relation? Tariq is a strict father, passionate in his beliefs, but understandably so, and his love for his children and his wife is evident. It is unthinkable for Casim to give up close ties with his people and community. Yet, if he refuses to marry the girl he is promised to, this will bring terrible shame on the entire family. Rukhsana might even lose her fiance. Casim is extremely guilt ridden and torn. Yet he loves Roisin too much to leave her.

Roisin Murphy has no close family attachments. Although she is not a particularly devout Catholic, she will not become a Muslim either. I believe, she would accept and honor the Pakistani culture, but it would have to be a bi-cultural arrangement with Casim. Her job at school is threatened by the relationship. In one ferocious scene, the traditionalist parish priest insists she break-off with Muslim Casim. Also, since Roisin already has one marriage under her belt, promising "forever" to another, when she could not honor her first vow, doesn't feel right. She can only promise to try to make the relationship work. Yet, Roisin is a serious person with a strong sense of honor. And the two love each other and are so right together. But how can Casim give up everything...and with no promise of forever?

This is a complex, beautifully acted film - so much more than a love story. It is also a good movie to see with a group and/or on a date, as it makes for terrific post-film conversation.
JANA

A Fond Kiss makes for an interesting story of cross-cultural romance, with an unblinking look at the clash between old world traditions and modern relationships. Set in Glascow, Casim (Atta Yaqub) is a young Pakistani DJ aspiring to become the owner of his own club. He lives at home with his parents and two sisters. The Ruksana (Ghizala Avan) the older sister is almost defiantly traditional in her Muslim views, while content to live in Glasgow; while his younger sister Tahara (Shabana Bakhsh) is more independent, preferring to characterize herself as a Glaswegian who also happens to be Muslim.

Ignoring his arranged engagement to a cousin back in Pakistan, Casim finds himself attracted to Roisin (Eva Birthistle), a music teacher at a Catholic school. As their relationship grows, it's threatened by the collision of Muslim and Catholic bigotry. There is further tension between Tahara and her parents regarding her goal of becoming a journalist, versus her parents desire for her to become a doctor.

From this premise, the filmmakers could have followed the lighter path of Bend It Like Beckham, instead they follow the more complicated (and probably more realistic) journey that takes Casim and Roisin through a number of conflicts between themselves, his family, the Muslim community and the Catholic Church. The film succeeds by not providing simple answers to complicated questions, and I suspect that some people may not necessarily be thrilled with the movie's resolution.

The acting is marvelous throughout, with every cast member offering a performance that avoids stereotype and caricature. The story doesn't always progress smoothly, however the pacing is fine. A Fond Kiss makes for a very thoughtful and enjoyable movie

Ken Loach's A Fond Kiss raises some serious cross cultural issues, and the movie does it in a way that, in traditional Ken Loach style, is totally naturalistic. Set in Glasgow, this engaging and finely observed drama is about what happens when lovers from different cultures dare to flout traditional taboos and decide to become a couple. At the end of the film, most viewers will probably be left with the feeling that their battle has just begun - the religious and cultural mores in this part of the world are often an uneasy mix of tolerance and isolationism, so from the outset, this intercultural couple will well and truly have their work cut out for them.

The movie begins when Casim Khan (Atta Yaqub), a second-generation Pakistani immigrant living with his devoutly Muslim family in Glasgow, meets Roisin Murphy (Eva Birthistle), a spirited blond music teacher who works in the local Catholic school. When Casim tries to protect his younger sister, Tahara (Shabana Bakhsh), from schoolyard taunts, he accidentally bursts in on Roisin while she is giving a lesson. He is immediately attracted to her, she reciprocates the affection, and it's not long before they are sleeping together and holidaying romantically in Spain.

Casim is a lean, fiery, and sexy young man, who works in his parents' corner grocery store and moonlights as a club D.J. He is currently scheming with his best friend, Hammid (Shy Ramsan), to raise the money to open his own nightclub, and he is constantly trying to line up investors in London. Roisin is a free-spirited and independent Irish Catholic girl, a refugee from a short failed marriage that has yet to be officially dissolved. Both are resolute, unyielding, and determined individuals who don't like being pushed around by authority, and by each other.

When Roisin is offered a permanent job, she must obtain a certificate of approval of her powerful parish priest (Gerard Kelly). He is an orthodox, chain-smoking, and fiery Catholic, who uncompromisingly screams at Roisin about her sinful affair, and angrily condescends to her for living with a Muslim. This confrontation is one of the most pivotal, powerful, and scorching in the film.

The deeper quarrel, however, is with Casim's culturally conservative parents, who have arranged for Casim to marry his Indian first cousin. Stuck in the past, Casim's father, Tariq (Ahmad Riaz) is a fulminating patriarch whom is intent on defending the traditional Moslem traditions: he bans Tahara from going to Edinburgh University to study journalism because it would take her away from Glasgow and away from his sphere of control; he also builds an special wing onto his house in a fanatical and fixated effort to keep Casim at home. The future of the Khans' oldest daughter, Rukhsana (Ghizala Avan), whose arranged marriage to an ideal partner has been set, is jeopardized by Casim's rebellion, which would put a blemish on the family name.

Unlike a lot of other cross-cultural domestic dramas that paint traditionalism as a kind of scornful impediment to Western modernism, A Fond Kiss cleverly imbues sympathy and commiseration for both sides. Viewers will appreciate that there will probably be devastating consequences for the Khan family if Casim and Tahara go their own ways, but also understand that one should be able to follow one's own dreams and love whomever one wants.

A Fond Kiss is heavily schematic, and has been told before in countless contemporary British melodramas, but what makes this film so special, and sets it apart, is the strong, naturalistic, and absolutely gorgeously nuanced performances from the entire cast. You feel Tariq's raging alarm that his son's defiance will bring an end to the social order, as he knows it. And we sympathize with Carim's horror at being stultified in a straitjacketed existence, paying lip service to the values and a culture that he no longer cares for.

We also empathize with Roisin and her almost blindsided lack of understanding of Carim's dilemma. She is naïve of the effect that British racism has ultimately had on Tariq, and she just can't perceive that Carim's family will never sanctify and bless their relationship. A Fond Kiss presents an age-old story, but it is told with fine, contemporary, and intelligent insight. The movie shows, with astonishing realism, what can happen when young, modern Western people, can get caught up in the ghosts of their parents' cultural, traditional, and time-honored past. Mike Leonard April 05.

"Ae fond kiss" is the love story between a Catholic woman and a Muslim man in Glasgow. The title derives, as I assume many will know, from a Robert Burns poem in which the poet laments the loss of his beloved, and the fond kiss is the last kiss before parting.

The love between Roisin and Casim is impossible, because his family expects him to marry his Pakistani cousin. Marrying outside the faith is out of the question anyway, and the prospect of it risks to sever Casim from his family forever.

The handling of the conflict is very skilful, realistic and far from overly sentimental. We see both the heartbreak experienced by Casim's family as well as that of the young couple, and we understand both: the scene where the disappointed father breaks the windows of the house extension he had built for his son and future daughter in law is tremendous and realistically portrayed. But ultimately, the film creates greater sympathy for the young couple: we cannot bear the overt manipulation of Casim by his family and we want Roisin to win.

As foils for the young couple, we encounter Hammid, Casim's friend, who has been living with his Christian girlfriend for seven years, but finds marrying her impossible (he tells Casim that his family is more important than some woman); his younger sister Tahara, who struggles for her own freedom; and his sister Rukhsana who does all the right and appropriate things. They represent all the possibilities that Cassim faces - hypocrisy, free will, and conformism. Cassim must choose.

The film is thus about the dilemma of the second generation, torn between two identities, and about how this affects both them and others who choose to be with them. It is beautifully acted, and beautifully filmed in Glasgow. Eva Birthistle is excellent in portraying the gentle, vulnerable, delicate, and at the same time, strong willed Roisin, and the young Shabana Baksh is wonderful as Casim's self-assertive, honest, straightforward, sister. They are both very likeable, as well as the driving forces behind the movie plot.

This is a beautiful, realistic, and ultimately optimistic movie, with nothing overdone or overly dramatic about it, with characters and a plot you cannot remain indifferent to. I have seen it twice already, and I liked it even better upon a second viewing, as I understood better the family's manipulative ways, Roisin's vulnerability and her determination, Tahara's strong will and Casim's indecisiveness. This is one of the best Ken Loach films, and makes a wonderful addition to a DVD collection. Do buy it!

A FOND KISS is another testy film from the hands of the excellent British director Ken Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty ('Bread and Roses', 'Sweet Sixteen', 'My Name is Joe', etc) - another example of how these two can take on issues of socialist realism and make them into entertaining and confrontational statements. The target for this story is the unfortunate schism between transplanted Pakistanis (and the Muslim religion) and the folk who populate the British Isles.

Set in Glasgow, Scotland the story involves Casim Khan (Atta Yaqub) who lives with his Pakistani family, promised to his cousin in an arranged marriage, and spending his nights as a DJ in a dance club - hoping to have his own club in his future. He accidentally happens upon Roisin Hanlon (Eva Birthistle of 'The Borstal Boy', 'Timbuktu', 'Bloody Sunday'), a pretty Irish girl, divorced, who teaches music in a Catholic School. Their instant attraction is enhanced by a mutual respect for mind and humor and they begin an affair. All seems like a placid, lovely love story...until the dichotomies undermine their happiness.

Casim's house is busy with his parents (Shamshad Akhtar and Ahmed Riaz) building an addition to their home to house the soon to be married Casim. Casim's older sister Rakhsana (Ghizala Avan) is soon 'matched' to a proper man. His younger sister Tahara (Shabana Bakhsh) informs her family that she wants to accept an offer from Edinburgh to enroll in Journalism (her parents have planned that she will study Medicine in Glasgow) and this act of defiance sets the family in motion. Casim is made to tow the line when Tahara informs them that Casim is dating a non-Muslim, Irish, white Catholic girl and of course his family demands that he drop this woman to save family face.

Meanwhile, the popular teacher Roisin is informed that she must obtain approval from her parish priest before the headmaster can complete his plan to make her permanent faculty. Roisin is forced to confront this evil priest (Gerard Kelly) who cruelly tells her she must forsake her bond with a Muslim and practice Catholicism in order to be 'approved' for employment. Roisin is distraught and informed she must move to a non-sectarian school mid-term. When Casim confronts her that he must follow tradition and go through with the marriage planned by his family, the two are pushed apart by centuries-old bigotry.

How all of this settles out is a tense and realistic resolution that includes give and take form all involved. Loach has the good sense not to make the ending of the film black and white, wisely leaving many aspects of the conflict of the characters unresolved. The cast is uniformly excellent and the pace and flavor of the neighborhoods of Glasgow makes this story move with grace. Yes, the story has been explored before ('My Beautiful Laundrette' was a whole other aspect of this ethnic and emotional schism) but as long as these lines of bigotry exist, they cannot be addressed often enough. Grady Harp, March 05

This film is about Casim (Atta Yaqub), a young Pakistani-Glaswegian Moslem man who is supposed to me on the verge of finalizing an arranged marriage to his cousin when he meets Roisin (Eva Birthistle) a young white Irish Catholic who teaches at his sister's school. They getting together is, from the perspective of western individualism and the concomitant ideals of free romantic love, an obviously very good idea. From the standpoint of his parents and their community with their rather different ideals of family honour it is not. The result is a tender and often funny love story with a lot of attendant heartache and a hard and highly intelligent political edge.

Thank whatever is your preferred conception of heaven for Ken Loach. This is a film that must have made about a trillionth the money scooped in by, say, the latest "Spiderman" episode and is at the same time about a trillion times more interesting and intelligent. It lacks the bleakness of Loach's previous film, the devastating but wonderful "Sweet Sixteen", but has much of its power and capacity to engage. This is cinema for grownups, gritty and real and truthful and fully engaged with all the messiness and complexity of life as it is actually lived. Sadly of course, when films are described in those terms it sometimes means they are terribly worthy but a little dull. This one is worthy and hugely entertaining. And Loach somehow contrives to pull off his usual trick of employing almost wholly unknown actors and eliciting performances that are compelling and utterly believable.

partly because for many years he was virtually blacklisted as a Trotskyite and political subversive, on account of his gritty 60s and 70s social dramas. The plot of this film ( which with a lesser director would have been straight Romeo and Juliet) has been fairly well rehearsed by previous reviewers so I'll skip, if I may quickly to appraisal.
I know of no other director who can take an "ordinary" theme, in this case love across the racial/ religious divide and have you on the edge of your seat till the last take as to how it will turn out. And believe you me it could very easily have been different. The way Loach does this is never to belittle or underestimate the forces opposed to the "liberal" conclusion that he draws. His depiction of traditional Moslem and Catholic values is both fair and accurate. He never demonises. I think that is what has made so many traditionalists over the years fume so much. If you haven't seen this film yet, see it. It's much better than Shakespeare. What a tragedy for 15 years he was virtually not allowed to work.

Saw this movie last night and wished to watch it again today. It nails many topics perfectly. The final scene it terrific. I highly encourage people to see this movie. The subplot is also very educational and insightful about how people try to pschychologically manipulate others. Go rent this movie, watch it with your sweetheart, or watch it by yourself. You won't regret it!

Leave it to Ken Loach to illuminate the real-world complications in a romantic story about star-crossed lovers. The romance is surely there in the magnetic presence of its two lovers, Roisin (Eva Birthistle) and Casim (Atta Yaqub). She's the young Irish music teacher and he's the only son of a tightly knit Pakistani family, all of them living in Glasgow. The social and cultural forces bent on keeping the two lovers apart are formidable and merciless, and the relationship falters and founders sometimes under their crushing weight.

For a long time it is only Casim who feels the brunt of it, his family having already arranged a marriage for him with a cousin and busily begun an addition onto their house for the newlyweds. Then there are problems for Roisin, whose employment at a Catholic school becomes jeopardized by her relationship with Casim. Rarely do two characters in film have to risk and finally sacrifice so much for true love. While not giving away the ending, it can be said that it's in keeping with the rest of the film's clear-eyed examination of the tug-of-war between romance and reality.

Acclaimed British director Ken Loach, the director of Family Life, Kes and Land and Freedom DVD, shot FOND KISS..., AE in 2003. The film earned a few awards in European film festivals but, until now, it hasn't been theatrically released in the U.S.A.

This movie is about the difficulties undergone by Roisin Hanlon, an Irish music teacher working in a catholic school in Glasgow, Scotland, and Casim Khan, a Pakistani young man of the second generation, in order to have a regular love affair in the social and familial environment they live in. Ken Loach and the script writer Paul Laverty, in order to give more weight to their demonstration, chose to describe the main characters as if they were living symbols of their social background. Hence Roisin is of course Caucasian but also a blond girl who seems to have just landed from Scandinavia. She doesn't have any family left and has just left her husband. On the contrary, Kasim lives with his family, is on the verge of marrying a cousin from Pakistan he hasn't met yet, and is unconsciously impregnated by the religious and social environment of the British Pakistani community.

At the end of the film, the solution advocated by the director is the separation, not the separation of the couple but the separation between Kasim and his untolerant family. Such a behavior seems to work in the movie but I really don't know if it would work in our everyday life.

A DVD zone your library.