"The Reluctant Fundamentalist" opens Venice Film Festival
A young Pakistani in New York, in search of the American dream, on the way to become a high flyer on Wall Street.
Then came September 11, when all that was promised to him in the land of freedom is swiftly taken away.
That's the story director Mira Nair wants to tell in "The Reluctant Fundamentalist", which premieres Wednesday (August 29) and marks the opening of this year's Venice Film Festival.
As an Indian living in New York, Nair revisits the sudden change of attitudes in the U.S. toward Southeast Asians following the 9/11 attacks and traces the shock and pain felt by people like herself.
(SOUNDBITE) Mira Nair, director, saying (English):
"We all know that there has been an enormous schism, a wall between East and West in this last decade and I sought very much in the dialogue between America and the Islamic world in the Reluctant Fundamentalist to really bring some sense of bridge-making, some sense of healing, basically a sense of communication that goes beyond the stereotype, that goes beyond the myopia, that goes beyond the ignorance."
The film's starry cast includes Kate Hudson, Liev Schreiber, Kiefer Sutherland and Riz Ahmed.
The British actor portrays the lead whose association with a radical Islamist cell in Pakistan turned him into a man wanted by the American intelligence.
That sense of vulnerability against wrongful accusations, to an extent, is something the actor says he can sympathise with.
(SOUNDBITE) Riz Ahmed, actor, saying (English):
"The feeling that, as Mohsin said that we are to some extent defined by the labels slung around our neck and that's not something that happens by our own choosing, it's something that we're kind of born with."
The film will screen out of competition, which includes 18 movies, a line-up that has won early praise from critics.
Then came September 11, when all that was promised to him in the land of freedom is swiftly taken away.
That's the story director Mira Nair wants to tell in "The Reluctant Fundamentalist", which premieres Wednesday (August 29) and marks the opening of this year's Venice Film Festival.
As an Indian living in New York, Nair revisits the sudden change of attitudes in the U.S. toward Southeast Asians following the 9/11 attacks and traces the shock and pain felt by people like herself.
(SOUNDBITE) Mira Nair, director, saying (English):
"We all know that there has been an enormous schism, a wall between East and West in this last decade and I sought very much in the dialogue between America and the Islamic world in the Reluctant Fundamentalist to really bring some sense of bridge-making, some sense of healing, basically a sense of communication that goes beyond the stereotype, that goes beyond the myopia, that goes beyond the ignorance."
The film's starry cast includes Kate Hudson, Liev Schreiber, Kiefer Sutherland and Riz Ahmed.
The British actor portrays the lead whose association with a radical Islamist cell in Pakistan turned him into a man wanted by the American intelligence.
That sense of vulnerability against wrongful accusations, to an extent, is something the actor says he can sympathise with.
(SOUNDBITE) Riz Ahmed, actor, saying (English):
"The feeling that, as Mohsin said that we are to some extent defined by the labels slung around our neck and that's not something that happens by our own choosing, it's something that we're kind of born with."
The film will screen out of competition, which includes 18 movies, a line-up that has won early praise from critics.