Lions Oven

Is it okay to laugh at terrorism? Is it okay to make jokes about radical Islamists? The British satire Four Lions proves in a jet-black way that the answer to that question can simply be yes.

Just like the Blues Brothers once did, Omar (Riz Ahmed), Waj (Kayvan Novak), Barry (Nigel Lindsay) and Faisal (Adeel Akhtar) are on a mission in the name of the Lord. Except their Lord is not God, but Allah, and their message is not music, but holy war against the Western world. Even if there are disputes within this small terror cell, one thing is clear to the men: they want to hit the enemy where it hurts most. But can this really succeed when the suicide bombers in the making keep tripping over their own feet?

One thing right away: Four Lions is not a satire about Islam. The faith itself is not made fun of here, nor are the people who follow the faith in a peaceful way. Rather, director Chris Morris takes aim at those who use their (alleged ) faith as an excuse to kill innocent people. And Morris shoots damn sharp, so that the viewer so many times the laughter is stuck in the throat. Because even though the film is clearly an over-the-top satire, some of the story elements are closer to the truth than one might like. After all, the case of the would-be terrorist who tried to blow up a car bomb in New York's Times Square, but then forgot the keys to the getaway car in the prepared car, proves that the highest intelligence is not always applied here.

The discussions of how cell phones can be tracked and how to trick images from surveillance cameras are hilarious, as are Omar and Waj's brief trip to a boot camp that ends explosively in the truest sense of the word, and even the crows turned into unwilling bomb carriers underscore the bitterly wicked underlying tone of this well-done satire. In the last third of the movie the action turns more and more into a drama, which makes the nonsense and senselessness of suicide bombings, whether they succeed or not, even more intense. In the end, you are left with a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach that truly doesn't just come from laughing so much, and that's what makes this film so special.

Morris does a first-rate job of avoiding letting Four Lions degenerate into a total and thus substantively shallow slapstick. He works intensely researched truths into a story filled with black humor, increasing the entertainment value but not minimizing the discussion material. The film strains the laugh muscles as much as the brain, it entertains but also scares. It exposes without offending. Sure, the humor is sometimes a bit special and very British and will therefore not open to everyone. But from a purely technical point of view, this terror farce is a little gem that finally tackles this difficult topic in a completely unsparing and uninhibited way. And that's exactly what makes this satire, despite minor hangs and some not really working gag at the bottom line: absolutely recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp