Brick Lane

Sarah Gavron's Brick Lane tells the story of a woman, Nazneen, who grew up in Bangladesh and later moves to London after she is married off to a man named Chanu. The story focuses on various aspects such as the independence of women and cultural issues like the post-9/11 view of Muslims. For much of the movie, Nazneen is portrayed as a relatively repressed woman who always sacrifices her own desires for the children and especially for her husband. Her husband, Chanu, disapproves of her taking up a job sewing and repairing clothing because he feels it shows inadequacy of the man to provide for his family. Chanu does love and care deeply for his wife and family, but his desire to maintain an extremely traditional family structure causes the family a great amount of stress at some points. Shortly after acquiring her sewing job, Nazneen begins to have an affair with Karim, the man who brings her clothing to repair. In this relationship, Nazneen is shown taking control of her love life, for better or for worse. As the movie progresses, the events of 9/11 occur and the Bengali community begins to hold regular meetings regarding the public's new view on Muslims. Karim is one of the leaders in the local Muslim group and begins to grow out a beard and dress more traditionally to show his support for Muslims around the world. At the last meeting Nazneen attends, her husband comes and makes a very heartfelt and genuine speech about his views of Muslims and their relationship with each other. Nazneen begins to realize her husbands capacity for passion beyond his own pride. At the very end of the movie right before the family will leave to move to Bangladesh, Nazneen tells her husband that she wants to stay in London, her new home. For the first time in the marriage, as far as the daughters can remember, this is the first time Nazneen stood up for her own desires and expressed her opinion. Her husband accepts his wife's desire to remain in London with the kids, and moves to Bangladesh by himself. Brick Lane incorporated many cultural elements to develop an intriguing story about the independence of women in modern times.