I looked for the film “My beautiful laundrette”, because I was interested in seeing the British actor Day-Lewis in one of his first performances. Surprisingly, I found a well-made movie about love and racism.
London in the eighties: Omar is the son of an unsuccessful Pakistani journalist and politician. Omar is a fragile young man, well brought up, obedient and silent. His uncle Nasser, one of the richest members of Pakistani community, protects him. Nasser makes Omar responsible for one of his filthy laundrettes. He doesn’t expect very much from his nephew, but Omar always smiles and thanks for everything.
But the point of the movie are the secrets Omar hides. Indeed, he is an entrepreneur and he is going to change his uncle’s mucky laundry into a brilliant business. The power which moves him is not other than love. He gives a job to his boyfriend Johnny (Day-Lewis), a typical work-class hooligan. This gay relationship cannot be accepted by the Muslim world of the Anglo-Pakistanis, neither by the racist low-class friends of Johnny, but it doesn’t matter to the lovers, and the laundry cash-register doesn’t stop. In one way, I think this film is smarter than the pretentious “Brokeback Mountain”, because unlike that one, gay love plays here a coherent role.
Stephen Frears used this innovative screenplay by Kureishi to raise doubts about some of the more solid cultural prejudices in intercultural societies. Nasser, Omar’s uncle, is a gangster, as criminal and corrupt as a white British could be. And love between Omar and Johnny is as beautiful, difficult and passionate as the love between two white British gays could be.
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