East Is East

1998 | 96 min. | Director: Damien O'Donnell | TV-MA-LS
East is East, a fast-moving comedy drama of mixed-race manners, is set in Salford, England in 1970. It centers on the Anglo-Pakistani alliance of the Khan family that is both claustrophobically cohesive and hopelessly dysfunctional. In their over-crowded terrace house, anarchy erupts daily with farcical energy. The Khan children, caught between the traditional dogmatism of their Pakistani father (Om Puri) and laissez-faire attitude of their British mother (Linda Bassett), have a lot of difficulties to follow their dreams of becoming citizens of the modern world. Based on the award-winning stage play by Ayub Khan-Din, East is East had great success in the theatres of London before it was made into a film.