Honour (2014)

Sick Product of a Sick System

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

"Two people love each other, why can't people be happy for them? He's Punjabi, Mona. He's Muslim, Adel. Yeah, but that ain't how it works."Occasionally you watch a movie with a rarely used (or abused) topic. No alien creatures threatening to destroy humanity, not another childish story about a post-apocalyptic world with a youngster as a liberator, not again cheap humor in a silly comedy with overstressed eager beaver, not an average action story with muscled guys or a horror with once again an evil spirit being driven out by using medieval rituals to the place where it came from. "Honour" is about honor killings. Despite our modern society this ancient use is still applicable in some cultures. Especially in the Muslim communities they sometimes fall back on this custom. Mostly the targeted persons are those who ashamed their family and, believe it or not, these mad acts are justified by certain laws of Islam. In some countries the majority of perpetrators go unpunished like in Pakistan. It's a despicable thought that there are hundreds of women being killed each year because they have violated the family honor. And that's the starting point of this film."Honour" is a gray and depressing impression of the beautiful Mona (Aiysha Heart) whose life enters a gruesome cycle of violence after she began an affair with a Punjabi and therefore experiences the wrath of her primal conservative mother (Harvey Virdi). Mona's mother (the similarity with the nasty witch from Hansel and Gretel is striking) and brother Kasim (Faraz Ayub) first try to take the law into their own hands. This goes wrong (in an incomprehensible way) and they hire a bounty hunter (Paddy Considine) to liquidate Mona.You can call the performances of the actress Aiysha Hart and the other actors commendable. Persuasive and dedicated. A cast that does its utmost to realize a credible and realistic story. Considine plays a sublime character role. You can see the duality in his character evolving. From a cold blooded, racist assassin into a true understanding person who apparently still has a bit of humanity inside him. Despite these superb performances, the film still fails on several points. Apparently Shan Khan couldn't really decide whether it should be a didactic documentary or a thriller. It's not a documentary because the background of the problem is pretty vaguely presented and there's hardly any explanation. For a thriller, there has been as much as no suspense. Also, the storyline was pretty confusing because of the constant use of time jumps and constantly viewing the same situation from a different viewpoint. The whole movie was like a Spaghetti Bolognaise: tasteful with a clew of story lines.Despite being a low-budget film, "Honour" partly succeeded to convince. It throws some light on a mysterious and incomprehensible to our standards culture, where barbaric practices are still honored. All in all I thought it was a good movie and a must see, if only to conclude that unfortunately such practices are still part of our modern society. And despite the dark atmosphere, this film also shows a gentle side so there remains still a bit of hope. Technically, I thought the executed idea of the film being a loop, not unkind and creative. More reviews at http://opinion-as-a-moviefreak.blogspot.be

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.

There are several reasons why I really enjoyed Shan Khan's Honour. First, I really enjoy Paddy Considine. He is a fine actor, as well as director, but here it's really put to the test. He plays a highly unlikable man for most of the feel, though we do see him become someone else through the process. Second, the script is really fantastic; it's edgy, raw, there is grit to the themes within. Essentially, the story is about a young British Muslim girl who is targeted for honour killing after her brothers discover she plans to run off with a young Punjabi man. After their attempts to reel her in slowly come to a drastic and failed end, the family, along with the mother, hire a bounty hunter in London to track her down, and it just so happens he is a racist; though for a racist, he certainly knows the culture, even their language, well.In a day and age where there is a lot of conflict over extremists and fundamentalists in various religions around the world, I can imagine it was tough to make a film about Muslims and honour killing. The film is a tough one. At times it is brutal, violent, messy. Other times it comes across as a great crime thriller. The script is tense. The story is told on film in a non-linear fashion, giving us a look at what led to the family's decision to kill the daughter. I think Khan did a great job with the script, and it translated well to screen.The acting came top notch here. I was very impressed with Aiysha Hart who played Mona, the young girl on the run from her own family, as well as Faraz Ayub and Shubham Saraf who played her brothers. Considine was absolutely incredible though, and it's his performance which truly shines above all else. The look and feel of the film was gritty, something I always enjoy. How everything looked, dark and sort of grim, really fit the subject matter and the tone of the film.All in all I have to give the film a 9 out of 10. Everything worked together to create a really wonderful film.I think the message here is presented through Considine's character. In the beginning, he is truly racist; he hates Muslims, any person of colour. Even though he deals with Muslims, he seems to have a disdain for them. He has white supremacist ink on his body, including an Aryan tattoo, which he later tries to singe off. By the end, after he has come to see the inner workings of the extremist Muslim circles and he sees his own behaviour mirrored in their fundamentalist, violent beliefs. Through others and their hatred, the character understands his own, or better yet he comes to reject it, understanding it is only hate, it is nothing but thoughts and misconceptions and foolish notions. This is a must-see film. I highly recommend it. I don't give it a full 10 stars, only because I felt there was something missing. Perhaps a little more of the past behind Considine's character, though we get bits and pieces, would have made it a perfect film. Though it's still an incredible movie. It inspires hope, that people who hate can turn around, somehow, some way.

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.