The young woman’s bedroom is done up in frilly pinks except for the poster on the wall, which bears a picture of President Bush over the label “World’s Worst Terrorist.”
Nasima, played by Manjinder Virk, is a good student who is increasingly angered by the anti-Muslim discrimination she experiences in her neighborhood, at school, all around her. Clearly she has traveled some psychological distance from the fuzzy stuffed animals and pink ruffled bedspread of girlhood to the political worldview she now holds.
Across the hall in their modest English home, her brother Sohail (Riz Ahmed), who excels in law school, is increasingly angered by Nasima’s anti-authoritarian streak, ashamed of the anti-social antics of her friends, and eager to make his mark within the system. He is an Englishman first.
The siblings are halves of a two- part BBC drama, worth attention tonight and Monday. “Britz,” controversial in England when it aired last year, chronicles a sequence of tragic events from both brother’s and sister’s viewpoints in two parts spread over two nights, 2 1/2 hours each.
“Sohail” premieres tonight at 6 on BBC America, Comcast Channel 162. “Nasima” follows Monday night at 6 (with repeats.)
In the age of terrorism, “Britz” plays as a frighteningly relevant thriller, but it leaves unanswered a number of questions about motivations.
The overachieving siblings from a traditional Muslim family share a loving relationship, although they had opposite reactions to 9/11.
The jarring story of British-born Muslims on radically different paths treats pertinent questions of British Muslim identity, the desirability of Big Brother-style surveillance by government in the name of security, the intrusiveness of recent laws supposedly trading freedoms for protection, and the transformation of bright young students into jihadists.
Sohail will be drawn into a secret world, working undercover as a spy for the British intelligence agency MI5, providing just the kind of window into Muslim society that the agency needs. Nasima will be drawn into another sort of secret life, equally committed to a cause.
“Britz” is fiction, inspired by recent historical fact, namely the 2005 suicide bombings in London, attributed to British-born Muslims with apparently ordinary lives who drifted from social exclusion into disaffection and, finally, terrorism.
Written and directed by Peter Kominsky (“White Oleander”), “Britz” feels important yet insufficient.
The two-parter leaves a hole: The second half, devoted to Nasima, never really convinces us the character has the depth of commitment required to make the decision she does. A level of frustration and rage is depicted, but what about her deeper motives? The role of religious fanaticism is hinted at but largely left to the viewers’ imagination.
The roots of radicalism are the key themes teased here, sometimes pedantically. The influence of religious fundamentalism, the role of bigotry by the mainstream population against a minority group and the rejection by peers are alluded to for their part in spurring youth to radical, violent action. They are not convincingly measured one by one to determine what specifically triggered which reaction.
Similarly, the appeal of an undercover, Big Brother-style branch of government is suggested, but not fully probed. The idea of belonging, of “giving something back,” as Sohail says, and gaining acceptance only explains so much.
As the siblings take opposite routes to express their disappointment with the status quo for Pakistani Muslims living in England, the story is compelling even as the end is obvious long before it arrives. Kominsky has raised essential questions. Still, the character’s leap to terrorism is not convincing.
While the story line may lack credibility, the acting is superb. Ahmed, in particular, should have a rich screen future.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
