The last mini-series T.V. movie that had me this on edge with anticipation was probably back with Stephen King’s ABC movie The Langoliers. Until tonight.

I just finished watching the first part of Britz, a BBC America movie and am in awe. Given the recent terrorist attacks, I thought the movie was oddly yet gratifyingly timed. Both main characters are Pakistani Muslims born and raised as “Britz.” The movie takes them on antithetical journeys through their search for justice.

In “Britz” (BBC America, 8 p.m.), writer and director Peter Kominsky (“The Government Inspector”) reacts more to the July 7, 2005, London Tube bombing that killed 52 — known there as 7/7 — than America’s 9/11.

But instead of re-enacting that tragedy, he concocts a fiction about a pair of second-generation Muslims in Northern England, a brother and sister who go starkly different ways in reacting to the anti-terror precautions of their time.[courant]

My dad and I were both on the edge of our seat watching this – and there are not many movies that both of us can sit through together. The first part of the movie looks at brother Sohail’s life (played by hottie Riz Ahmed). Sohail detours from his law school to join the M15, the domestic spying operations. As the token Muslim Urdu speaking spy, he quickly gets involved with investigating Muslim terrorist cells. The story takes us on the complex journey on how he is fighting for justice for Muslims through being on “the inside”.

The concluding part, which shows tonight (Dec 1st) on BBC America at 8pm follows the story of Sohail’s sister, a medical student and political activist, Nasima (played by Manjinder Virk).

Part two follows the story of Nasima … who spends much of her time campaigning against repressive government policies and witnesses at first-hand the relentless targeting of her Muslim neighbors… Nasima is not only forced to question her liberal views but left feeling so angry at, and estranged from, the country of her birth, that she embarks on an extraordinary journey that eventually takes her to a terrorist training camp in north-west Pakistan.[bbcamerica]

Besides being a thriller around hyphenated Muslim characters around the struggle for identity, I was particularly compelled with how the movie addresses the idea that ‘terrorists don’t simply exist, but are created.’ Continue reading →