Love + Hate

Colour, 35 mm
United Kingdom, 2004, 86 min
Section: Another View

Synopsis

“In London we’re lucky to be living in a city that is truthfully cosmopolitan and multiracial. I realised there are places where people don’t enjoy that same integration. Particularly mill towns in Northern England, which seem to have an air of segregation about them. There are white areas and there are Asian areas and there is a tremendous air of dislike between the two communities. You would hear stories of terrible violence and feel it on the streets. What is being a racist? And is it possible to change and become a non-racist?” asks the director of a film screened at this year’s Berlinale. He gives visual expression to his answer in the story of Adam and Naseema. They are a white Brit and Pakistani girl, a modern-day Romeo and Juliet, whose love is not barred by the implacable hatred of their families but by nationalist and religious traditions. Bound by irreconcilable loyalty to those closest to them, the young lovers find themselves in emotional conflict, in the crossfire between faith and feeling, tradition and instinct, love and hate.

About the director

Dominic Savage (b. 1962) graduated from London’s National Film and Television School. In 2000 he shot Nice Girl for the BBC, honoured with a BAFTA TV Award for Best New Director (Fiction) 2001 and at the same time nominated for a BAFTA for Best Single Drama (TV). In 2001 he made When I Was 12 for BBC2, which this time took the BAFTA TV Award for Best Single Drama. In 2002 followed a film for BBC Screen Two, Out of Control, which received many accolades and garnered the 2002 Michael Powell Prize for Best British Film at the Edinburgh IFF and a 2003 Royal Television Society prize. His documentary work includes three movies for Channel 4: The Outsiders, Rough Males and The Complainers. He has also made other films for the BBC: Memories Are Made of This, Seaside Organist. Screened this year at Berlin, Love + Hate (2004) is his feature debut.