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Politically Incorrect
We caught up with comedian and actor Kayvan Novak whilst at the Sydney Film Festival to talk about his role in the daring satire Four Lions.
"The first I heard was that Chris Morris was making a film commenting on suicide bombers, and I absolutely wanted to be part of it," comedian and actor Kayvan Novak explains. He plays the irretrievably stupid - but supremely loyal - terrorist Waj, a kind of Lenny-from-Of-Mice-And-Men to best mate Oma (Riz Amed). The pair flunk out of Pakistani terrorist camp but are still intent on declaring jihad on the citizens of London.
Kayvan admits the role made him "slightly nervous", yet he rightfully chose to trust writer/director Morris. Even if you're not familiar with Kayvan - his series Phonejacker (broadcast once in this country) led to Facejacker (soon to be broadcast; both soon to appear on DVD) - you should know Chris Morris well enough to see why any comedian would work with him. Beyond his role as Denholm Reynholm on The IT Crowd, Morris is a living legend responsible for some of the most ingenious and biting satire - Jam, Brass Eye, This Day Today - although you have to hunt it out in this country.
Morris claims as part of his inspiration the story of the terrorists who, intent on blowing up a ship in the harbour, filled their rubber dinghy with so many explosives that it sank before they could row it out. Four Lions is about that sort of terrorist: the foolish, home-grown, incompetent variety whose beef with Western society is dubious at best. Indeed, one of the terrorists is convert Barry (Nigel Lindsay) whose most dire need is to be needed, rather than to redress injustice.
Unlike Morris's self-conscious and controversial earlier work, Four Lions is almost understated, depicting believable humanity and genuine pathos amongst the humour, particularly in Kayvan's ‘Waj' character, whose stupidity makes him difficult to dislike. But it takes a clever man to play dumb, and you wonder if being clever, or ‘knowing better', ever got in the way of handling the sensitive issues in the film.
Not according to Kayvan, for whom imbuing his character with his own beliefs was never an issue. He reckons the role of Four Lions is to "make you laugh" and to "release the pressure valve that's been building for the last ten years", terrorism and suicide bombing being such a taboo subject that "making a comedy out of it" is treading new ground. "My involvement was to serve the character and the director. I was wholly occupied giving a truthful performance and being as funny as possible. I didn't question the politics."
The beauty of Four Lions is that it can make you think - as good comedy should. One key scene sees most recent recruit, Hassan (Arsher Ali) ‘partying' with ditzy upstairs neighbour Alice (Julia Davis) while bomb-making accoutrements are in full view. When the rest of the cell returns and admonishes Hassan for his carelessness, Alice thinks their strange behaviour and caginess at her presence is a result of their being insecure homosexuals.
In another scene, Fessal (Adeel Akhtar) trains crows to be flying bombs - as ridiculous as the Americans attempting to similarly train bats, and the Russians, dogs, towards the end of World War II. You know how that's gonna end, but it's no less funny.
Indeed, most of the explosions in the film are as funny as The Goon Show taught us they could be, half a century ago. It's only the first explosion, resulting in the first terrorist death, that - in Kayvan's words - "kicks you in the nuts a bit"; it comes after you've "gotten caught up in the comedy of these bumbling jihadi types" and brings you back down to earth.
The aspect of the film that makes you think most is the parallel plot - not fully developed or pursued - that sees authorities target the wrong ‘Asian Muslims' as ‘terrorists': the ones living peaceful lives, in accordance to their religious beliefs.
"Definitely, Chris has something to say about authorities driven mad through fear and going after the wrong people, just to say they're on top of it when actually they don't know what they're doing," Kayvan says. "There's a scene in the film paying homage to the tragic death of Charles Menenez," - the kid with the backpack in the tube station shot in the head seven times by Police - "wrongly targeted, who turned out to be completely innocent..."
That scene comes towards the end, when the terrorists are using the London Marathon as the backdrop for their Islamic martyrdom. Oma is dressed as breakfast cereal mascot the Honey Monster; a police sniper takes out someone dressed as Chewbacca by mistake. The sniper's response to being told he hit the wrong target? ‘No, it must have been the right target, because I shot it...'
There it is: a genuinely funny comedy about a serious issue that makes you think. And one of the things you can think about is whether comedy can change anything.
"Absolutely," according to Kayvan Novak. "Comedy is powerful in so many ways." Now that he's made the serious statement, he can play it for laughs: "It can get you laid for a start, which is always a good thing. Do you know any good bars in Sydney? I've got some one-liners I want to try out..."
Four Lions is released in cinemas August 19.
Picture caption: Novak at the UK Channel 4 Comedy Gala Arrivals in March 2010, courtesy of Getty Images. Taken by Gareth Cattermole.