My Son the Fanatic

A Phoenix pick

The clash between religious fundamentalism and secular humanism gets a rare charge of common sense and compassion in this moving and hilarious gem directed by Udayan Prasad from a script by Hanif Kureishi (My Beautiful Laundrette). Parvez (Om Puri, heartbreakingly comic) is a middle-aged Pakistani immigrant in London whose dream of success has been reduced to driving a cab and occasionally hooking customers up with call girls when his mortgage payment is due. His son Farid rebels against his dad's decadence by hooking up with a fundamentalist Islamic cult. Embodying Farid's worst nightmares are the aptly named Schitz (a dourly brilliant Stellan Skarsgård), a ruthlessly hedonistic German entrepreneur, and Bettina (Sarah Jane Potts), the prostitute whom Parvez pimps to him. As Schitz regards Parvez as a kind of enabling Gunga Din, and Parvez begins to see Schitz as the great Satan, a Mona Lisa-like relationship develops between the harried hackney and Bettina. Although Fanatic's resolution may be a bit pat, and for a film about tolerance a little intolerant of Farid's fundamentalism, this is an uncompromising and uplifting affirmation of decency in the face of human extremes and extremism. Screens at the Copley Place Friday, September 11 at 6:30, 8, and 9:45 p.m. and Saturday, September 12 at 12:45, 2:45, and 4:45 p.m.

-- Peter Keough

---

Film Festival Feature Films

| With Friends like These | Digging to China | Monument Ave. | Rounders | Lolita | God Said, 'Ha!' | My Son the Fanatic | The Mighty | Shattered Image | Gods and Monsters | Xui Xui: The Sent-Down Girl | Without Limits | Clubland | The Inheritors | The Celebration | Urban Ghost Story | The Boys | Living Out Loud | Stuart Bliss | The General | The Kindness of Strangers | Dancing at Lughnasa | Central Station | The Human Race | Double You Street | Oberwasser -- By U-boat to America | The Witman Boys | The Cruise | Confession of a Sexist Pig | Melting Pot |

---

More Boston Film Festival information, film descriptions, and show times

---