A Kind of English

Ruhul Amin's quiet, humane dramatic feature explores the conflicting influences in the life of Samir, a 9-year-old Bengali boy growing up in the East End of London. Samir's unemployed father is a man crushed by his inability to make a place for himself in England. His mother maintains the traditional role of the dutiful wife, having little contact with the world outside the family home. The most Westernized member of the extended family, the father's younger brother, Tariq, shares the attitudes and ambitions of most English boys his age, but remains bound to the Asian community by his awareness of the ever-present threat of racism. Directed with restraint and played with enormous sensitivity by the cast (especially young Jamil Ali as Samir), Amin's film examines the family's relationships with each other and the world outside through a series of understated, carefully observed incidents, from which the themes and drama of the situation gradually emerge.