When the two leads first meet in Ken Loach's A Fond Kiss, it's out of a negative item in the form of some racial harassment of a young man's younger sister; someone he was picking up from school. After having chased her, who in turn is chasing the bullies back into the school grounds and then through the corridors, he stumbles across a certain young woman who's a teacher there. Tahara (Akhtar Bakhsh) was the younger sister, her angered reaction displaying strong and positive traits for a young girl, anything but the expected passive reaction of a teenage girl living amidst those of a ethnicity different to hers. The rest of the film will dedicate itself to the relationship of this young man and woman, the sequence setting up an overall tone or outlook on events played out within, an observing of a good thing being born out of a terrible thing; a systematic realising of the good and the bad that plagues life, as later on certain events and revelations will arise that'll have the ability to both tear and sway entire families onto plateaus of bad, seemingly without much in the way of a positive outlook.
The leads are British born of Pakistani descent Casim (Yaqub) and Irishwoman Roisin (Birthistle); two people based in the Scottish city of Glasgow. Their coming together is born out of a hate filled and chaotic event, their relationship is built on tranquillity and mutual love but in being together, they'll spawn further events of a chaotic nature. They are two people who connect principally through their fondness for items of a musical nature, Casim being a disc jockey who works through the nights at a local club, selecting tunes and mixing them up to the resounding visual chorus of many-a young dancers, while Roisin is a music teacher at the aforementioned school, spreading teachings and learnings on the subject as her piano playing enforces a physical skill in working within this similar field as Casim. The idea is fairly clearcut, in that tone of skin is irrelevant as is racial background and ethnicity and that if two people can connect with one another, then that is a beautiful thing.
The film is certainly more lower-key Loach than one might expect, A Fond Kiss taking a step forward and mingling with two people of different racial ethnicities as struggles and items that exist to block their fondness for one another arise within the respective camps: an organised marriage Casim wants nothing to do with and issues the Catholic Church has with him in challenging Roisin to break off the affair for the good of her career. In light of recent but consistent, unfortunate arisings to do with the Catholic Church that date back however far, no doubt few will begrudge them the role of the unsympathetic, 'out to destroy' and just down right nasty force they're rendered here. The film is of a relatively routine nature by Locah's standards, running on a Romeo and Juliet infused premise as life in the shoes of each of these respective people whose issues, aspirations and families clash with both a British based culture and and their own. For Roisin, her life and aspirations are threatened by way of issues within the field of her career as Casim's first generation and consequently strictly traditional parents threaten to destroy what Casim wants in terms of a partner.
It'd be fair to say the affair takes its toll on the two, with Casim's business deal that'll enable him to build his own nightclub (one that runs on an expansive sense of equality) and an arranged marriage Roisin will have to learn of sooner of later hovering around above all of this and acting as a consistent off screen threat; their relationship hitting a major buffer the one time they're out of the nation and therefore further away from problems linked to job, family and so forth during a half term holiday in Spain. Spain is a radiant locale Loach uses to push their relationship away from mere flirtations, rides home and the odd drink with each other and into a more passionate and embracing bond as the bodies of these two are exposed more on the warm, welcoming beaches as the systematic feelings they have for one another becoming equally exposed; all the while under glowing cinematography as the location of Spain glistens in an interesting juxtaposition.
The film proves Loach can construct a love story whilst systematically maintain an eye on how the greater items in each of these persons lives can also affect them. 1991's Riff-Raff saw an effective enough love story play out amidst this seemingly neo-realistic aesthetic of men working on a building site as one of the ring leaders of that troupe spoke about Britain's needs as a nation to be reigned in, rebuilt and so fourth as the dialogue and scenes of that nature fittingly unfolded on a site dedicated to construction - it was just more interesting. The film's story here doesn't carry as much dramatic tension nor visceral involvement in each of these people's problematic lives as later-in-the-decade efforts such as 2006's The Wind That Shakes the Barley did nor the shared, tri-directorial piece entitled 'Tickets' that Loach made with two other directors in 2005; his segment revolving around young British individuals struggling in a foreign territory as the timer ticked down and the train neared its destination as the guard loomed about the place. A Fond Kiss is an admirable effort, engaging and interesting in its own right but I found a hollow space where I wanted to feel for these people and their plights with modern society; respective cultural clashes and then later religion. It's an interesting piece and worth seeing but not one I came away from ecstatic about.
The leads are British born of Pakistani descent Casim (Yaqub) and Irishwoman Roisin (Birthistle); two people based in the Scottish city of Glasgow. Their coming together is born out of a hate filled and chaotic event, their relationship is built on tranquillity and mutual love but in being together, they'll spawn further events of a chaotic nature. They are two people who connect principally through their fondness for items of a musical nature, Casim being a disc jockey who works through the nights at a local club, selecting tunes and mixing them up to the resounding visual chorus of many-a young dancers, while Roisin is a music teacher at the aforementioned school, spreading teachings and learnings on the subject as her piano playing enforces a physical skill in working within this similar field as Casim. The idea is fairly clearcut, in that tone of skin is irrelevant as is racial background and ethnicity and that if two people can connect with one another, then that is a beautiful thing.
The film is certainly more lower-key Loach than one might expect, A Fond Kiss taking a step forward and mingling with two people of different racial ethnicities as struggles and items that exist to block their fondness for one another arise within the respective camps: an organised marriage Casim wants nothing to do with and issues the Catholic Church has with him in challenging Roisin to break off the affair for the good of her career. In light of recent but consistent, unfortunate arisings to do with the Catholic Church that date back however far, no doubt few will begrudge them the role of the unsympathetic, 'out to destroy' and just down right nasty force they're rendered here. The film is of a relatively routine nature by Locah's standards, running on a Romeo and Juliet infused premise as life in the shoes of each of these respective people whose issues, aspirations and families clash with both a British based culture and and their own. For Roisin, her life and aspirations are threatened by way of issues within the field of her career as Casim's first generation and consequently strictly traditional parents threaten to destroy what Casim wants in terms of a partner.
It'd be fair to say the affair takes its toll on the two, with Casim's business deal that'll enable him to build his own nightclub (one that runs on an expansive sense of equality) and an arranged marriage Roisin will have to learn of sooner of later hovering around above all of this and acting as a consistent off screen threat; their relationship hitting a major buffer the one time they're out of the nation and therefore further away from problems linked to job, family and so forth during a half term holiday in Spain. Spain is a radiant locale Loach uses to push their relationship away from mere flirtations, rides home and the odd drink with each other and into a more passionate and embracing bond as the bodies of these two are exposed more on the warm, welcoming beaches as the systematic feelings they have for one another becoming equally exposed; all the while under glowing cinematography as the location of Spain glistens in an interesting juxtaposition.
The film proves Loach can construct a love story whilst systematically maintain an eye on how the greater items in each of these persons lives can also affect them. 1991's Riff-Raff saw an effective enough love story play out amidst this seemingly neo-realistic aesthetic of men working on a building site as one of the ring leaders of that troupe spoke about Britain's needs as a nation to be reigned in, rebuilt and so fourth as the dialogue and scenes of that nature fittingly unfolded on a site dedicated to construction - it was just more interesting. The film's story here doesn't carry as much dramatic tension nor visceral involvement in each of these people's problematic lives as later-in-the-decade efforts such as 2006's The Wind That Shakes the Barley did nor the shared, tri-directorial piece entitled 'Tickets' that Loach made with two other directors in 2005; his segment revolving around young British individuals struggling in a foreign territory as the timer ticked down and the train neared its destination as the guard loomed about the place. A Fond Kiss is an admirable effort, engaging and interesting in its own right but I found a hollow space where I wanted to feel for these people and their plights with modern society; respective cultural clashes and then later religion. It's an interesting piece and worth seeing but not one I came away from ecstatic about.