Earlier this year, walking the south side of Whitechapel High Street in London’s East End I passed an advertisement for the cinematic release of the film The Infidel. Staring at me from a poster on the side of a bus stop was the film’s hero Omid Djalili. A curious figure he’s presented as cultural confusion embodied.
When District 9 was released…the film was an immediate box office hit…This was much to the surprise of critics, reviewers and bloggers, who seemed astonished…that a science fiction film with this impact could originate from South Africa.
Courting angst is always an unsettling business but rarely more so than when the flirtation is a salve for other types of meaning. In an age of short termism, where the quick fix is king, there’s something almost quaint about…
The French philosopher Jean Baudrillard once wrote that “the American city seems to have stepped right out of the movies” by which he meant that the experience of visiting a U.S. city itself is one that is produced directly by…
Update: for a more developed reading of East is East, see my book Multicultural Encounters (2006: ch. 6)
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East is East has been hailed the British comedy hit of 1999. If the media response is anything…
