Brick Lane

At the tender age of seventeen, Nazneen's life is turned upside down. After an arranged marriage to an older man, she exchanges her Bangladeshi village home for a block of flats in London's East End. In this new world, pining for her home and her sister, she struggles to make sense of her existence - and to do her duty to her husband. A man of inflated ideas (and stomach), he sorely tests her compliance.

Told from birth that she must not fight her fate, Nazneen submits, devoting her life to raising her family and slapping down her demons of discontent. Until the day that Karim, a hot-heated local man, bursts into her life. Against a background of escalating racial tension, they embark on an affair that finally forces Nazneen to take control of her life.

Set in multicultural Britain, Brick Lane is a truly contemporary story of love, cultural difference, and ultimately, the strength of the human spirit.

Director: Sarah Gavron
Genre: Multicultural Romance
Rated: M
Running Time: 101 minutes
Special Features: Deleted scenes and original theatrical trailer



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Swing little girl on your swing. Comb your beautiful hair. Your bridegroom will come soon. And then he will take you away.

Nazneen and her sister Hasina play a game of chase, teasing each other whilst running through the vibrant green paddy fields of their Bangladesh village home. Reaching their house they see their mother sitting abject and alone. Nazneen's approach to her is rebuffed and she is drawn back to the fields to play with her sister. While they splash in the nearby stream with a group of local boys, their mother appears in the distance carrying a large pot. She walks towards the river and descends into it, ties a rope around her neck and fills the pot with water which instantly pulls her under, her red sari floating dramatically across the surface. Noticed by other women washing clothes nearby, the alarm is raised. Nazneen is attracted by the cries to push through the crowd and see her mother being dragged out of the water, dead.

Some time later, the sisters look out mournfully from the steps of their house, through the monsoon rain. Their father approaches and sternly tells them to go inside. A decision has been made.

Nazneen (now 17) resplendent in yellow sari and traditional wedding make-up is fussed over by the local women whilst Hasina (14) stands apart. Their father brings out a picture of the man Nazneen is to marry - an older man, far away, in London. The two sisters walk hand in hand to the river's edge, the golden sun illuminating Nazneen's sorrow as she steps on to the tiny boat that will take her away from her sister and home. Hasina turns and runs off as Nazneen drifts away, a single tear falling form her eye. Sixteen years later, Nazneen walks down Brick Lane, a solitary figure carrying her shopping past familiar shops, the mosque and the curry houses, whilst the full ethnic mix of East London carries on its business around her. She turns into a dramatic red brick estate, walks across the courtyard, up the stairs and enters the flat which has now become her home, and home to her two daughters Shahana (14) and Bibi (10) and to her husband, Chanu.

Breakfast time and Chanu leaves for work, hopeful, in his indomitable fashion, that he will hear news of the promotion that he believes will finally vindicate his years of struggle for acceptance in England. A letter has arrived from Hasina. With Chanu and her daughters gone, Nazneen sits to read the latest tales of her sister's adventures in love back home in Bangladesh. Venturing out onto the walkway, she notices a new neighbour, Razia, talking to Mrs Islam, an older member of the community. Razia, although Bangladeshi, doesn't wear a sari and with her short hair and brash manner intrigues Nazneen. Razia moves her belongings, including a sewing machine, into her new flat. Shyly, Nazneen says hello and returns to her domestic chores. Chanu comes home defeated, as he has been passed over once again for promotion. He announces that he has resigned in protest. azneen's dreams of returning to Bangladesh to be with Hasina are shattered.

The following day, from her window, Nazneen sees a young British Bangladeshi man, Karim, bringing a fresh batch of sewing work to her new neighbour. 'Some of the women are sewing at home', Nazneen tells Chanu who completely ignores the comment and its implication. Later, running into Razia on the estate, she is invited back for tea and Razia generously gives Nazneen her old sewing machine. Nazneen realises she can help the family return to Bangladesh with her own efforts. Chanu reacts badly to the idea of his wife working and retires with a scowl to the bedroom taking the TV with him. A few days later, Karim, knocks at her door carrying the first batch of sewing for Nazneen. Karim is handsome and radiant with the idealistic energy of youth.

Over the next months as spring turns to summer, they talk and grow close. Karim introduces Nazneen to the outside world through the community meetings with which he is involved. She learns about him building local strength to defend the interests of the Bengali community against the racist organisations who are attempting to destabilise the area - namely one group, the Lionhearts.

One day, while Nazneen shops in the local market, Karim brushes past her and entreats her to follow him into his uncle's empty factory. Amongst the piles of sewing and the rows of machines, they kiss. Transformed by her first experience of love, Nazneen floats through the summer coping with the difficulties of her life: the debts that Chanu has incurred by borrowing money from Mrs Islam; the dissatisfaction of her teenage daughter Shahana - who is resisting the notion of moving to Bangladesh; and the letters from her sister which hint at troubles in love and life there.

Summer turns to autumn. Irrepressible as ever, Chanu has found a job as a taxi driver to 'raise money for the home fund' and a jolly family day out to Buckingham Palace heralds the end of a period of tranquillity. Walking down a sunny Brick Lane, Nazneen is glowing with hope and confidence as she sees her lover in the street. But as they near each other they are distracted by a crowd gathering to watch a TV screen inside a local café. They both turn to see the terrible spectacle of the second plane screaming into the Twin Towers and are brutally awoken from their relationship dream.

At home, as the family watch those fateful images over again, Chanu is more agitated than ever - fearful of a racist backlash and determined that now is the time to leave for Bangladesh. The days that follow are anxious for Nazneen as she copes with the fallout from 9/11. A series of incidents on the news and on the estate culminate in Chanu returning home unexpectedly to find Nazneen sewing and Karim in Chanu's seat at his computer. It is clear to Chanu what has been going on between them, but he makes a dignified exit.

Later that evening, in retaliation, Chanu confronts his wife with the truth about her sister's adventures in love - that she is living as a prostitute. The realisation of this truth provokes an emotional breakdown for Nazneen. Frantically she scours her sister's many letters. The names and phrases within them take on new meanings that trigger a flood of memories and images - of her sister, of Karim, of Chanu and of her mother's death. A collage of pain and the toll of years of endurance combine to bring on a dramatic physical collapse. When she wakes days later, the world appears to have returned to normality. Chanu is cheery - he has bought the tickets for Bangladesh and has started to pack. Karim is nowhere to be seen and the family is facing an uncertain future together.

As the winter progresses, the time to leave for Bangladesh draws ever closer and Shahana increasingly challenges her father's authority. Karim returns, now with a beard and the serious air of a more politicised Muslim. He offers Nazneen his hand in marriage as a way of legitimising their situation. Chanu then decides to attend one of the community meetings organised by Karim and asks Nazneen to accompany him. In this highly charged atmosphere, Chanu makes an emotional, personal statement about Islam and brotherhood which strikes a very different note to the prevailing radicalism of the meeting. Nazneen begins to understand the reality of both men. She loves them both in different ways, but her future is with neither. She meets Karim in the street and makes a final break with him. Returning to the estate, she sees Mrs Islam waiting at her door. Mrs Islam demands the money that Chanu owes her. A new and clearly empowered Nazneen resists, stating they have paid back much more than was borrowed. She challenges Mrs Islam to prove that she is not a usurer by swearing on the Koran. Mrs Islam threatens to reveal Nazneen's secrets to her husband, but is faced down by Nazneen who wins another significant battle to determine her fate. As Chanu dismantles the last of the furniture, the boxes all packed ready to leave, Shahana confronts him with her passionate pleas to stay. This is their home - neither her, Bibi nor Nazneen want to live in Bangladesh. She urges her Mother for once in her life to voice her own wishes. When Nazneen does not, Shahana runs out of the flat and into the streets below. After a moment's hesitation, Nazneen follows in a dramatic chase through the night time streets. Distant memories of her childhood chases with her sister are evoked as she runs down Brick Lane and out into the City, ending in the neon lit glare of Liverpool Street Station. She clasps her daughter to her and, in that moment, it is clear to her that she should stay.

Nazneen tells Chanu that he must go but that she cannot. Tearfully and with great dignity he accepts the situation acknowledging her strength and still with a hope that they may be together in the future. The following day he leaves, alone, watched by Nazneen and their daughters as the first flakes of winter snow drift in the air.

Waking with her daughters in the empty flat, Nazneen looks out of the window into the bright, winter sunlight. In a rush of excitement, they leave the flat and run down to the courtyard below to find it magically transformed by a deep layer of snow. Laughing and playing, the three lie down and make angels in the snow as far above a plane goes across the blue sky. Nazneen gazes up, looking ahead into a future that may be uncertain, but that is now hers alone to determine.