East Is East (1999 film)
| East Is East | |
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Promotional poster
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| Directed by | Damien O'Donnell |
| Produced by | Leslee Udwin |
| Screenplay by | Ayub Khan-Din |
| Starring |
Om Puri Linda Bassett Jordan Routledge Archie Panjabi Chris Bisson |
| Music by | Deborah Mollison |
| Cinematography | Brian Tufano |
| Edited by | Michael Parker |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by |
Channel Four Films (UK) Miramax Films (US) |
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Release date
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Running time
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96 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English/Urdu-Hindi |
| Budget | £1.9 million |
| Box office | £10 million |
East Is East is a 1999 British comedy-drama film written by Ayub Khan-Din and directed by Damien O'Donnell. It is set in Salford, Lancashire, in 1971, in a mixed-ethnicity British household headed by Pakistani father George (Om Puri) and an English mother, Ella (Linda Bassett).
East Is East is based on the play of the same name by Ayub Khan-Din, which opened at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in October 1996 and Royal Court Theatre in November 1996. The title derives from the Rudyard Kipling poem The Ballad of East and West, of which the opening line reads: "Oh East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet".
Zaheed "George" Khan is a Pakistani Muslim who has lived in Britain since 1937. He has a wife in Pakistan. He and his second wife Ella, a British Roman Catholic woman of Irish descent, have been married for 25 years and have 7 children together: Nazir, Abdul, Tariq, Maneer, Saleem, Meenah and Sajid. George and Ella run a popular fish and chips shop in the neighbourhood.
While George is obsessed with the 1971 war between East and West Pakistan and arranging marriages for his children, the children themselves, who were born and brought up in Britain, increasingly see themselves as British and reject Pakistani customs of dress, food, religion and living. This leads to a rise in tensions and conflicts within the family unit.
East Is East was remarkably successful for a low-budget comedy (£1.9 million budget), grossing some £10 million in the UK and more than $4.1 million in US cinemas, plus being a big hit across Europe. In addition, when the film was released on video and DVD, it made £12.3 million in UK rentals alone.
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