The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013)

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a 2012 political thriller drama film based on the 2007 novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, directed by Mira Nair, starring Riz Ahmed and Kate Hudson in lead. The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a post-9/11 film, a movie about the impact on one Pakistani man of the Al Qaida attacks and the American reaction to them.

In 2007, Nair read the manuscript of Hamid's unpublished novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist. After reading it, she immediately decided to make a film, from her own production house Mirabai Films and Nair's long-time partner, producer Lydia Dean Pilcher production company Cine Mosaic, the two optioned the film rights to the novel. The Film is produced by Lydia and co-produced by freelance screenwriter Ami Bogani, Hansi Farsi, Anadil Hossain and US producer Robin Sweet. The estimated budget of the film is $15 million. The film was a major box office flop, earning only $2.1 million worldwide.

The film premiered as the opening film for the 69th Venice International Film Festival, and at the 37th Toronto International Film Festival. The film had a limited release in the United States, India, and in Europe and North America. In Pakistan, the film was released in Urdu with a changed title as Changez on May 24, 2013. In Africa, the film premiered in Kampala, Uganda, on August 24, 2013. The film also screened at the 31st Munich International Film festival. Upon its release, the film received mixed reviews from critics.

Nair won a favourite world feature award for the film in 2012 at the Mill Valley Film Festival. Nair won the German Film Award for Peace as well as the IFFI Century Award.

Synopsis

In 2011, Anse Rainier (Gary Richardson), an American professor at Lahore University, is kidnapped soon after he leaves a movie theatre. A ransom video is sent to the US embassy, demanding the release of 690 detainees from a Muslim concentration camp in Kot Lakhpat and €700,000 for the children of Waziristan. Bobby Lincoln (Liev Schreiber), an American journalist and undercover CIA informant in Pakistan, arranges to interview a colleague of Rainer, Changez Khan (Riz Ahmed), who he suspects is involved in the kidnapping.

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