Film Review: A Fond Kiss

Ae Fond Kiss Movie review by Ahed El-Najar Ae Fond Kiss is a romantic drama, directed by Ken Loach in 2004. The movie was filmed in Pollokshields, which is a district in the south side of Glasgow. Cross cultural romance, social difference and racial discrimination are three words which describe the theme of the movie very good. The movie opens with Casim’s sister Tahara, which is being chased around the school. Students are calling her bad names because of her cultural background. Tahara get so upset that she starts chasing the boys in anger. Casim follows her around the school, trying to control her. She chases them into a music classroom, where Roisin is the teacher. Tahara manages to break a guitar before she leaves. Here is where Casim meets Rosin for the first time. He feels a bit guilty for the guitar, so he buys a new one for her. He also offers her a ride home, because she lives on the other side of town. Both Casim and Roisin are presented as two very nice persons. They work different places and share a lot of interests. Casim is a DJ at a nightclub with his closest friend Hamid. Their plan is to save up money for their own club. Roisin is a music teacher at a Catholic school. She is a very good teacher, and the students seem to like her a lot, so does The headmaster . Their love for each other grows very fast. It doesn’t take a long time before their a couple. The only difference for them is their cultural background. Casim comes from a family with strong faith for the Muslim religion. His parents are planning a marriage between him and his first cousin named Jasmine. His father is also preparing for their family, so he enlarges their home. In the beginning his family thinks that Casim is ready for the marriage. But what really happens is that he goes out with Roisin. They have a secret relationship, and Roisin thinks that what they do is perfectly fine. There is nothing wrong with what they do. They are in love, so they stay together. But Casim’s faith is very strict. In his case, Casim is not allowed to go out with white girls. He has to get married with someone that his parents select for him. It is perfectly clear that this is a difficult situation, because every time Roisin asks to see Casim’s family he says no. He tells her that it is not inappropriate for her to meet them. She feels that this is bad, because she wants to see how his family is. Roisin does not have any family, her parents died when she was young. Casim does not care very much about this, even though you can see fear in his eyes. He is afraid to tell his family about his relationship with Roisin. His girlfriend does not know about how difficult it is for him. All along his family is arranging the marriage, and Casim does not tell this to Roisin. He even tells her to knock down when they drive at places where his family work or live, because he is afraid to be seen with her. In the theory Casim is going to marry someone he does not want to marry. But his secret gets revealed to Roisin when they are in Spain on holiday. He tells her that he has not spoken with his family about his situation, and that his family expects him to marry Jasmine. When Roisin hear this, she got sad and angry. Casim got very upset as well, and told Roisin that he was sorry. But it does not help in the beginning. But when Casim tells Roisin that he does not want to marry Jasmine, and that he is going to talk with his parents, her mood gets better. As the time goes on their relationship is still a secret for casim’s parents and family. Even though he promised to talk with his parents, he chooses not to do so. So the relationship between the two becomes weaker and weaker. They argue a lot, and they are very unsure on what to do. But things get even worse for the couple. Roisin gets an offer which includes her, a full time job at the Catholic school. But she has to ask the parish priest for permission. He does not accept because she has sex outside the marriage. He is even rasist and dislike Muslims, because he asks her what kind of man she had sex with “is he a kind of muhammedman”. The headmaster at the school does not care about this in the beginning, but he has to fire her unwillingly. If he wouldn’t fire her, he would be in a lot of trouble. This means that Roisin has to get a new job at a school which is not Catholic. When things couldn’t possibly be any worse, other people get affected by their love. Casim’s older sister Rukhsana is supposed to marry someone she love, but he does not want her. That is all because of Casim’s dirty actions toward their faith. To top it all, Casim tell his parents how he feel. He tells them that Roisin is his true love, and that he will stay with her forever. His parents get very upset, and his father tries to make him leave her. But Casim made up his mind; he chooses to stay with his beloved Roisin. I liked the movie pretty much. The plot and acting was very successful, and the theme was very strong and sad in one way. The ending was both great and sad, some kind of happy ending when they meet again in the end. Casim and Roisin finds each other with the power of love, but Casim’s family get ruined in one way. I also liked the music chose for the movie. The songs Ae fond kiss and strange fruit are two songs which shows great parallels to the movie itself. I did understand the movie pretty well as well, because I am a Muslim and know how the situation is. Though I am happy my parent’s faith for the Muslim Religion is not that strong, that differs between people. This review should had been sent to you for long time ago, but the day I fall in the motorcycle accident was the date for this review, I totally forgotten about it, perhaps my mind got a bit broken by the accident . I apologize . Yours Ahed