If just any joker decided to make a comedy about a Muslim terrorist cell, it may very well have been unfunny, offensive, perhaps even hurtful. Luckily Four Lions, a hit in Britain and out today in the United States, is a sharp satire both hilarious and poigniant.
I had the good fortune to speak to the director Chris Morris about his sure-to-be controversial film.
Jordan Hoffman: What led you to make a comedy about terrorism?
Chris Morris: I was reading about the subject and it was only when I found examples of real-life events which were unexpectedly funny that I started thinking about this as a film at all. It had to be a comedy because what happens in real life is much more funny then you would think it would be. You come across a story about a Canadian cell planning to assassinate the Canadian prime minister and then they forget what his name is. They set up their training camp in the woods and then they all run in from the tent because they’ve been terrified by a mouse. I mean, these things really happen. That lot also designed a detonator to protect themselves from the effect of their own explosion. It was a remote-control detonator but it only had a range of ten feet.
Jordan Hoffman: The first World Trade Center bombers, you remember how they got them?
Chris Morris: Because he went back to claim a discount on the van or something?
Jordan Hoffman: (Laughs) Exactly, yeah.
Chris Morris: So there you go. So you’re saying it for me now.
Jordan Hoffman: Is this because if you were to take a sampling of 100 random people, 98 of them would be idiots? Or is it that people who are drawn to Islamic jihad have greater potential to be idiots.
Chris Morris: I think the answer is closer to the first. Whether you use the word idiots or not just depends on your disposition. Because, you know, one person’s idiot is another person’s loveable human.
