Four years ago, director Josh Appignanesi released his debut feature, Song of Songs, an austere, fiercely disquieting study of transgression, identity and faith in the Orthodox Jewish community of north London. Startlingly, for this second project, he has chosen something that is similar in many ways – but shifts gear for something more confrontational and taboo-busting.

This is a broad comedy that gleefully and repeatedly stamps on the tender toes of liberal correctness, comparable perhaps to East Is East or something by the Farrelly Brothers. It stars Omid Djalili, Archie Panjabi and Richard Schiff (the presidential aide Toby, from TV’s The West Wing), and the original screenplay is by David Baddiel, whom I should, in the interests of full disclosure, emphasise that I know and like, and whose sense of humour I probably share.

Djalili is Mahmud Nasir, a Muslim minicab driver and family man in east London with a placidly contented home life. Probably the most fervent enthusiasm in his life is signalled by his Spurs replica shirt, though this also signals a hint of something that fate has in store for him.

Continues: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/apr/08/the-infidel-review