Honour

i can say nothing was hold back on this movie about the hate on both sides, film was dark, raw and gritty as it can get in Great Britain. i am guessing this film will upset a lot of people who are Muslim and i have to say i do not fallow any religion myself but saying that lots of Muslim's will come to realise the truth in the story which is happening all around us even today. i am from Turkey originally so bit more open minded about Women's choices but to east of Turkey mostly in Urfa honour killings are reality even to this date, lately a girl getting raped and killed by family member by drowning while she was 4 months pregnant. i am not an ostrich i will not put my head in sand and say this is not happening like most, Honour killing is not a religious but cultural upbringing it happens not just in Muslim cultures but seems more apparent due to how often it is happening. i have to say only way forward is educating people by saying taking life is wrong moral point and religious point and this job task is for making tougher laws by government and religious leaders speaking out to their community to change hearts. i believe the film was well acted but have to say it was rushed with bad cutting directing was OK i would have like to see the story being more longer more character development and more depth as it is i gave 8 should have been 6-7 but it is a brave, bold and raw take on this sensitive matter for that it deserves 8 and should be watched by every one over the age of 18 due to way more realistic Violence used in the film.

HONOUR is a difficult movie to watch. Centering on the idea of honor killings, a practice that not only prevails in Muslim communities but in other cultures as well, it focuses on the way in which Mona (Aiysha Hart), 'transgresses' her family's sense of ethics by falling in love with a Punjabi man Tanvir (Nikesh Patel). Spurred on by her elder brother Kasim (Faraz Ayub), who works for London's Metropolitan Police by day, the family engage a bounty- hunter (Paddy Considine) to pursue Mona and discover her whereabouts. This he agrees to do, while at the same time despising the family, especially Mother (Harvey Virdi), who spends most of her time at home working as a seamstress.

The movie opens explosively with the dénouement, and then goes back to tell the story of why Mona was considered to 'transgress'. The ideas might seem shocking to non-Muslims, but Shan Khan's film shows how important it is for young women - especially - to forge the right marriages, even if it means them being transported back to Pakistan to marry a spouse chosen for them by their family, and agreed upon (normally on financial terms) by the groom's family.

Shot in neo-documentary style around the streets of the London suburb of Southall, a major center for the Asian community, HONOUR makes much of the private/public distinction: by day Kasim spends his time working for an organization that explicitly pursues anti- racist policies (in the wake of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, which exposed large-scale racism in the Metropolitan Police). By night he appears to embrace just the kind of racism that the police try to eradicate, as he abuses Tanvir - and at one point holds him captive. Yet director Khan does not criticize Kasim for this; on the contrary he suggests that this is a way of life for many of London's Asian communities.

The real villain of the piece is Considine's bounty-hunter, who has no sense of belief other than to obtain as much money as possible. He is the true racist in the sense that he makes no effort to understand anybody's motives; all that matters for him is that the job should be done and he should receive due financial reward. It is people like him who help to perpetuate the racist stereotypes that prevent members of different communities from integrating with one another in inner cities - not just in London, but everywhere.

HONOUR offers no comfort of an easy resolution. On the contrary, it suggests that second or third generation Asians living in western capitals have to acknowledge the presence of cultural difference, and observe the conventions laid down by their families, even it that means sacrificing the so-called 'freedom' of the west for a more confined existence. This might seem 'unfair' in Mona's cause, but only because she has been brought up in a culture that supposedly values free will.

"Honour killings are violent acts of vengeance, committed by male family members against female relatives ..." This is patently untrue. Honor killings do not discriminate by gender. Women simply get the publicity.

But it seems every writer must follow Feminist (gender Marxist) dogma and carry water for "the war on women" screed.

Again and again, bad male culture, poor 'heroic' women victims and the white knights that save them to prove how strong they are.

This inanity keeps cropping up again and again by a whole generation of writers brainwashed since childhood to despise the penis.

I find it a little ridiculous that a few reviews have based their review on their own religious views, g-h-f from London seemed more interested that they are a Pakinstani from England...what that has got to do with an honest critique beats me. The film shows it how it is, anyone with any real life experience will know this movie has portrayed the subject truthfully, there's no 'disrespect' to any religion or nationality, this movie is accurate and at the same time worrying. About time a director told it like it is and not namby pamby around the subject. It is what it is, unacceptable, awful, cruel and disrespectful to women and indeed to society. More films should tell the truth and be direct rather than try to be PC.

I don't have much to add that distracts from my stars or my tag line. Any movie brave enough have 'honour' as its title is asking to be criticised, but with this Honour, such is unnecessary. The director, the cameramen, and the editors here have created a truly professional piece. Its class is shown in the contrast between the cinematography, full of bright clear colour, which shows a modern, happy and vibrant England (like a shopping interlude on a Nigella Lawson show), and the story itself, brilliantly constructed from several person's perspective, before coming together for the dramatic close. It is in this last aspect that the movie truly satisfies as a thriller. It's well cast, wonderfully acted, and keeps the viewer guessing. I highly recommend it as a thriller, as well as the talent on display as a work of cinematic excellence, and of course the enlightened way the writer has presented a terrible evil in our society. Worthy of several awards.