Ae Fond Kiss (Just a Kiss)

Ae Fond Kiss is the third in the Glasgow series by director Ken Loach and screenwriter Paul Lavery (My Name is Joe, Sweet Sixteen). Much lighter in tone than his previ... more >

Ae Fond Kiss is the third in the Glasgow series by director Ken Loach and screenwriter Paul Lavery (My Name is Joe, Sweet Sixteen). Much lighter in tone than his previous films, it avoids scenes of poverty, drugs, and urban decay, characteristic of many of Loach's other films. Though it is basically a romantic drama, Ae Fond Kiss has a great deal to say about issues of class, race, and religion and does so in a very forthright manner.

Roisin Hanlon (Eva Birthisle) is a spunky young Irish woman who teaches music at a Glasgow Catholic school. She is still married but no longer lives with her husband, a situation that will later affect her tenure at the school. After a fracas at school in which a young Muslim girl is being chased by bullies, she meets and begins a relationship with Casim Khan (Atta Yaqub), a Pakistani disc jockey in Glasgow clubs who plans to open his own club. Casim, a second-generation Pakistani, is very close to his parents, Tariq and Sadia (Ahmad Riaz and Shamshad Akhtar) and his two sisters, Rukhsana (Ghizala Avan) and Tahara (Shabana Bakhsh).

His relationship with Roisin is opposed by his family who has arranged a marriage between him and a Pakistani girl and have built an extension to the family home for them to live in. One wishes that there was a solution that would make both parties happy but such is not the case. The parents will not acknowledge that their children are living in a different world or encourage them to make their own choices. Ae Fond Kiss is very real and involving and, while the story of star-crossed lovers has been told before, it has rarely been related with as much honesty, insight, and beauty.
< less

View all 113 of Howard Schumann’s reviews

Ratings for this DVD

Average Rating
Log in to place your vote!

Film Details

Cast

Atta Yaqub, Eva Birthistle

Technical Details

Other Versions & Formats