Purely Joyful Movie!

Good concept, poorly executed.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

"The Infidel" has a funny premise, but the film also treads on many serious topics--straddling the fine line between social satire and social commentary. While it's not a brilliant film, I really respect the filmmakers for making it--and it's good for a laugh.Omid Djalili plays a Muslim Brit. While not exactly religious, he is anti-Jewish and tries to fit in to his local Muslim community. However, his entire world is turned upside down when he learns that he was adopted...and his birth parents were Jews! He doesn't know what to do--should he try to find his birth parents? Should he ignore all this? Should he perhaps become a Jew or tell his friends and family about this? In addition to answering these questions, the film gets very serious when the man's son falls in love with a lady---and her father is a rabid anti-Semite and jihadist. What's poor Omid to do?! As I said, the film talks about a lot of VERY sensitive and serious issues and is sure to infuriate the more close-minded viewers--though I doubt if they'd see the film in the first place. But, it also manages to be very silly at times--keeping a light mood when treading on tough topics. I appreciate this very much--it took some guts to make the film. My only complaints are that occasionally the film looked a bit rushed--such as the very contrived ending. It was fun--but not the most inspired portion of the film. Still, you could do a lot worse than watch this film! By the way, this film would make a WONDERFUL addition to watching "West Bank Story"--another film which treads the same territory but manages to do it even better. In fact, "West Bank Story" received (deservedly) the Oscar for Best Short Subject Film--it's that good.By the way, the film has some very crude language--so hold on tight and don't show it to your mother-in-law!

This seems to be two movies; one good, one not so good. It starts off well enough, seemingly like a Muslim Cosby Show. It shows the London Muslim community in all its diversity, from radical Islamists, to moderate Muslims who hate the radicals for making non-Muslims fear them, to even a liberal imam who's gay friendly. And all the scenes that take place within the Muslim community are really well written and acted. But then the central plot premise comes up: Mahmoud finds out he's adopted and - horror of horrors - that his birth parents were Jewish. At that point, the jokes start getting delivered with less of a rapier wit and more of a sledgehammer, but only when Mahmoud is dealing with his Jewish identity issues. Once he's back to dealing with his family again, things get funny and well-acted. But then we go back to the awkward writing and acting when he's trying to relate to being Jewish, and so it goes. If they'd just cut it down to a movie about moderate vs. radical Muslims, it could have been really good. But unfortunately, it's a really uneven film that feels like a waste of good talent and should have had a better writer and director. 5 stars.

I missed this at this years MIFF and was a little perturbed to read some so so reviews, but never one to believe everything one reads, I went to see it anyway. Good thing that everyone has a different opinion as I really enjoyed this.Written by David Baddiel the film explores the idea of identity and what that means in religion. When a Muslim man finds out he was adopted and was actually born Jewish it throws his life into chaos. Not only does this provide some very funny moments as he explores Jewish life by befriending a neighbour, whilst hiding the truth from his family, but it also presents an entirely fascinating idea. As a non relgious person, I found the idea that you spend your life believing one thing only to come from another amazing. That the film explores this with humour makes it easy viewing, but it also has a message about tolerance and understanding that is played out with subtlety and isn't shoved done our throats.Omid Djalili does a great job, his portrayal of the man torn between two ideas is natural and funny, without resorting to a stereotype. Excellent writing by Baddiel gives some great moments, many at the expense of faith, and in a way often shows how ridiculous religion is at times. The film fails near the end as a sub plot of an Islamic cleric actually being a 80's pop star falling flat, but otherwise this is a very funny and entertaining film.More of my reviews at my site iheartfilm.weebly.com

When I watched this film I wonder if a story like this could actually come out from Singapore's film industry. After all, we're one multi-racial and multi-religious melting pot so the context of having such characters here isn't that far fetched, and to have this screened here (albeit under an M18 rating), does say something. Moreover, it's a great film speaking up against religious fanaticism, and aimed its sights well at false prophets who adopt a holier than thou attitude in hoodwinking their followers.Mahmud Nasir (Omid Djalili) and his family are a typical moderate Muslim family, with Mahmud himself living the rather carefree life that had just overcome the death of his mom. His son Rashid (Amit Shah) announces that his intended fiancée and wife to be Uzma (Soraya Radford) will soon be getting a new stepdad, and as it turns out permission for her hand in marriage will have to be sought from none other than Arshad El Masri (Yigal Naor), a firebrand Pakistani cleric infamous for his anti-Western tirades. To Mahmud, this spells trouble to be associated with such a negative, high profile figure, but for the love of his son, have to put up his best behaviour when this international figure comes for a visit to discuss marriage. Not to mention the stress of having to portray himself as a devout Muslim man!And to make matters worse, like the trailer already suggested at length, Mahmud discovers while clearing up his mom's place that he's adopted, and traces his lineage to be actually that of a Jew. A major identity crisis ensues because of his son's future happiness, and of course him having to rediscover and seek out the truth about his roots. With his birth father in critical health in the hospital and at the insistence of a rabbi (Matt Lucas), Mahmud has to reconnect with his Jewish roots in order to stand a whiff of a chance to talk to a man on his deathbed. Thus begins a comedy of errors arising from a clash of obvious cultures and attitudes when Mahmud has to reconcile with a one-time enemy Lenny Goldberg (Richard Schiff), in order to learn the Jewish customs and culture in double quick time.There are plenty of jokes here that treaded the fine line of being racist, and I mean a very fine line. But as the movie put it across, it isn't racist if the one telling it is actually highlighting and poking fun at one's own race, which leaves some food for deeper thought. So we have a barrage of comical situations, some brilliantly crafted and full of wit, while others fell flat and came across as quite distastefully done, but nonetheless there were more positive rip-roaring moments than not, which I feel only the relatively more uptight folks will find additional reasons not to let loose and enjoy the film as it is.More importantly though, beyond the laughter, is its theme of family and friendship that transcends how we look and who we are on the surface, segregated and branded by our name, or religion, or culture, which should never be the case. Sure we can have the freedom to believe in what we want, but with that also come tolerance for that of others, and a reminder never to judge others or compare just because we're different at that level, but fundamentally we belong to the same species inhabiting the same shared earth, and life will be all the more harmonious should we not try to impose bigoted thoughts on others.While the ending may seem a little bit stretched, it did work as intended, and provided a fitting finale with moderatism triumphing over extremism. Both Omid Djalili and Richard Schiff put up fine performances and share excellent chemistry together as enemies turned friends, with their scenes together being some of the best be it focused on physical comedy, or through that rapid fire exchange of insults. Highly recommended for its relevance in our day and age for the messages it sets out to counsel.