Four Lions

Four Lions (originally titled We Are Four Lions) is a 2010 British political satire black comedy film directed by Chris Morris (in his directorial debut) and written by Morris, Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong. The film, a jihad satire following a group of homegrown terrorist jihadis from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, stars Riz Ahmed, Kayvan Novak, Nigel Lindsay, Arsher Ali and Adeel Akhtar. Plot A group of four radicalised British Muslim men living in Sheffield, three of whom are British Pakistani, aspire to become suicide bombers. They are Omar (Riz Ahmed), who is deeply critical of Western society and interventionism; his dim-witted and anxious cousin Waj (Kayvan Novak); Barry (Nigel Lindsay), a bad-tempered and extremely rash English convert to Islam; and the naive Faisal (Adeel Akhtar), who tries to train crows to be used as bombers. While Omar and Waj travel to an al Qaeda-affiliated training camp in Pakistan, Barry recruits a fifth member, Hassan (Arsher Ali), after witnessing him pretending to commit a suicide bombing at a conference. The training in Pakistan ends in disaster when Omar attempts to shoot down a US Air Force drone and accidentally destroys part of the training camp; the pair are forced to flee. However, Omar uses the experience to assert authority on his return to Britain. The group disagrees about what the target should be. Barry wants to bomb a local mosque as a false flag operation to "radicalise the moderates". At the same time, Faisal suggests blowing up a Boots pharmacy because it sells contraceptives and tampons. Omar's conservative but pacifist brother visits him and tries to talk him out of doing anything violent; however, Omar and his wife mock him for keeping his wife in a small room and squirt him with water pistols, making him flee. After the group begins production of the explosives, Hassan is left alone to watch the safe house as Barry takes Waj and Faisal out to a field for a test detonation of a small amount of TATP contained in Omar's microwave, using a nearby fireworks show to cover the sound. When they return, they find Hassan dancing with an oblivious neighbour (Julia Davis). The group suspects they have been compromised and transport their volatile explosives to a new location in grocery bags. Faisal trips up while crossing a field and is killed in the explosion. This angers Omar, who berates the others and leaves.