The movie "Yasmin" deals with the story of a young Muslim woman balancing two worlds. On the one hand, she tries to fulfill her rather conservative father's expectations to act like a good Muslim wife, but on the other hand, she wants to get closer to John, an English-man, who works with her. This works well until September the 11th 2001 when she is confronted with the increasing tension between the western and the Islamic culture: she is insulted at work for being a Muslim, while having problems at home for acting too westernized. The main conflict at home is that Yasmin rejects her husband Faysal, she married on her father's wish, to enable Faysal to get the English citizenship. Faysal himself is completely unable to handle the new environment since he has never lived in a city before. Yasmins brother Nasir, is caught by an organisation preaching hatred to fight for Islam. While Yasmin has to handle Faysal and Nasir, she tries to deal with the growing distance between her and John and her colleagues offending her at work. John is a very friendly and open-minded young man who tries to help Yasmin out of trouble, but, without any success since she doesn't tell him about her private situation,. The film's message is as well its biggest strength. "Yasmin" shows on how many levels a single event can impact on people's lives and how different actions cause certain happenings. Although e.g. the viewer is probably not able to identify with Nasir, one sees in which situation he has been to decide like he does and that things cannot be judged as easily as the media often suggest. The only weakness of "Yasmin" is the predictability of the storyline but since this film is not meant to stun the audience with unexpected turns, that is not a problem. I recommend this movie to everyone who is ready to see how banal and brutal at the same time a nice little life can fall apart.
