re:mote voices

Title: Ae Fond Kiss...
Cast: Atta Yaqub, Eva Birthistle, Shamshad Akhtar, Ahmad Riaz, Shabana Bakhsh, Ghizala Avan, Pasha Bocarie, Gerard Kelly
Director: Ken Loach

As the film makes clear early on the title is a reference to a piece by Rabbie Burns, probably Scotland's most famous poet. This latest film by director Ken Loach is in some ways more of the same, and in others a complete departure. The film is set in Glasgow, and is filled with Glaswegians and family struggles. But on the other hand at it's core is another kind of struggle, the one which rises in the spaces between cultures. The two lead characters come from different backgrounds, and when they start to form a relationship the dogma of each side threatens what they have.

Casem is a young Muslim, born in Britain from Pakistani parents. Roisin is a young Catholic, a white Irish woman teaching in a Catholic school. They meet through Casem's sister who is at the school, and start a relationship. But as things start to become increasingly serious between the two Casem is forced to reveal that he is due to be married to his first cousin as part of an arranged marriage. Instead of being the end, this becomes the beginning as the pair fight to stay together, regardless of friends, family, and the establishment, and what all of those do try and break them apart.

Ae Fond Kiss is emotive and charged, taking a very contemporary and sympathetic approach to the issues at the story's centre. Sitting watching this with a Glasgow audience, there are certain things which get a clear and obvious reaction. With that I am always curious as to how these kind of things will translate to the rest of the world.