MovieChat Forums > East Is East (2000) Discussion > Why set it in 1971?

Why set it in 1971?

posted 16 years ago by epa101
8 replies | jump to latest

I do not understand why this film, made in 1999, got set in 1971. What was the point? Why did they not set it more recently? The 1971 war over Bangladesh's independence is mentioned a few times, but it does not have any direct influence on the plot. This film was a play originally. Was there something in the play that got cut out of the film, which might explain this?

The only reason that I can come up with is that George, the father, feels more conscious of his Pakistani heritage when his country is under criticism in the media and eventually loses a war against its bitter rival, India. Perhaps, he was supposed to be in a particularly conservative mood owing to the war. It is hinted in the film that he cannot have always been like that, or else he would not have married an English woman.

[–] clive-ihd 16 years ago

Basically the way the characters behaved in the film is different to the way they would behave now.

The Asian community in Britain were less integrated with the whites than they are now, and standards have changed among both whites and Asians.

And possibly the writer (who would have been ten when the film was set) was writing from his own experiences.

[–] epa101 16 years ago

I am glad that someone has finally replied! You are probably right. I think that integration was got worse in some areas, as shown in some riots in 2000 and the rise of the BNP to levels that the NF never reached, but I suppose that there has been a lot of integration in other areas as well.

I wondered whether the choice of Bradford for the strict fiancees' family home was deliberate, seeing as West Yorkshire is associated with strict Muslim communities and segregated areas. It might have just been coincidence though.

[–] quigley_brown-1 16 years ago

It was a 'period' film. It seemed a bit more innocent than had it been set in 1999.

[–] rnw_06 10 years ago

Bradford, I think, is just true to life because, as George himself remarks when he is at the mosque, there was a larger Pakistani community there.

[–] Weird_and_Proud1 16 years ago

because that;s what pakistani muslims living in britain where like in 1971 things are ALOT different now.

[–] anshul2001anshul 16 years ago

Well 1971 has an influence. In a communtiy get together George and others lament that bengalis are collaborating with indians.
Alter he asks doctor in hospital if he is an indian?

thirdly mother of the brides takes objection to archie punjabi wearing Saris as they are indian dress. One owuld be amzed to know that Sari was common dress of women all over india in 1947 .In fact wife and sister of Jinnah ( father of pakistan) also wore saris.
Benzir bhutoot used to wear saris til 1975 but later they were discrded as Hindu dress and today even in India muslim women don't wear sari but salwar kameej.

[–] ducdebrabant 15 years ago

It dramatizes their unwelcomeness in the larger society that the film chose the period of Enoch Powell and the political movement to forcibly repatriate everybody not of European descent. Also, if the author is writing from his own experience at all, that may have been the time his eyes were opened to all this.

First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win. Gandhi.

[–] freebird1987 11 years ago

It was partially based on the writer's experiences.