The crew of ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ along with director Mira Nair (fourth left) during the opening of the Doha Tribeca Film Festival at Al Mirqab Hotel last night. (Shaival Dalal)
BY RAYNALD C RIVERA
DOHA: DFI-funded Mira Nair film The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which opened the fourth Doha Tribeca Film Festival yesterday, aims at shattering stereotypes and sparking dialogue on the cultural divide between the East and the West since the 9/11 attacks.
“So often the way one looks, the place one comes from gives the people an idea immediately of the way he might be … For me it is so important to go beyond the stereotype that we are not just having but constantly reinforcing,” said Nair, director of the film who spent nearly five years of painstaking process transforming the story from script to screen-her longest journey in creating a film.
Based on the bestselling novel by Mohsin Hamid, the film tells the story of Changez (Riz Ahmed) torn between his love for America and loyalty to his homeland Pakistan after the 9/11 attacks which blow his Wall Street corporate dream apart.
“I was deeply inspired by this novel and this subject matter because I’m so tired of always seeing the world from one point of view and it is so important that I make a story which creates a real bridge between worlds that we all inhabit,” said Nair during the press conference before the screening of the film at Al Rayyan Theatre in Souq Waqif.
The human thriller which also stars Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland, Liev Schreiber, Martin Donovan and Om Puri, will be shown in cinemas in the US and around the world from April 26. It has already enjoyed success having won the top prize at the Mill Valley Film Festival in California and having screened at three major festivals in Toronto, Venice and London.
Nair explained the film was originally inspired with a visit to Pakistan in 2004 and her own experience as a child growing up.
“My trip to Pakistan inspired me because I got to experience the deep culture that I remembered as a child and I wanted to make a film about modern day Pakistan which is so different to the country you often read about in the news,” she said.
On how the film has been received in the US and if she is concerned about the potential reaction from American audiences, she said: “My feeling is people long for this bridge, people long for this dialogue, people long to know what is the other side of the story because so often in the US you only get one side of the story.”
She said the film is a portrait that shows many facets of American life and that it is not at all a condemnation but a portrait of real life in America today.
Hamid was of the same view saying: “Very often in the news today we get a very simple story. America is good or America is bad, Pakistan is good or Pakistan is bad. We all feel that part of our job was to recomplicate what has been simplified and to show complexity in a story – in which one person is neither right nor wrong.”
Doha Film Institute CEO Abdulaziz Al Khater lauded the film as a fitting start for the festival which is a huge showcase and a celebration of cultural diversity.
“The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a good way to start this festival. The film talks across cultures in a very powerful way,” said Al Khater.
A glittering red carpet event which featured Arab actors and Hollywood actor Robert De Niro preceded the screening of the film.
The Peninsula
