All-star cast head Jag Mundhra’s Shoot on Sight
THE first cinema release to deal with the 7/7 London suicide bombings will be release in the UK this summer.
Shoot on Sight, the hotly awaited new work from director Jag Mundhra, is the first film to depict the climate of fear in post-7/7 London after the bombings that irrevocably changed the city.
The controversial new political thriller is based on the London Police’s order to shoot suspected terrorists following the July 7 London bombings and includes an all-star cast including Brian Cox, Greta Scacchi, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Ralph Ineson and Sadie Frost.
The film is the first cinema release to tackle the issue of suicide bombings on UK soil and the country’s ongoing threat from home-grown terrorists linked to fundamentalist Islam.
Filmed entirely on location in London, Shoot on Sight is directed by Jagmohan Mundhra. The acclaimed director, an American-citizen born in India, was living in London at the time of the 7/7 terrorist attacks.
Mundhra was inspired by his experiences in the immediate aftermath of the London bombings. He found that life and the way he was perceived by Londoners had completely changed and was struck by how even the most basic of everyday routines had been irrevocably altered.
“Having lived and worked in London for many years I became very aware of and affected by how peoples’ attitudes were changing towards me. Taxi drivers would not stop for me in the days following 7/7 and I could completely understand why.” explains Mundhra. “The fact that I had always found London to be an extremely culturally tolerant city made this change in atmosphere all the more shocking.”
When an innocent Muslim is killed by the London Police force in the wake of 7/7, Tariq Ali (Shah), a successful Muslim police officer, is asked to head up the internal investigation to hunt-down suspected suicide-bombers. The investigation is clouded by allegations of racism and religious profiling in the Police force, as well as the ongoing threat of terrorism in the capital.
At the same time, Lahore-born Tariq – a British citizen married to an English woman with two children – has his loyalties questioned by colleagues in the force, despite his long service to Scotland Yard, as well as fellow Muslims, finding his inquiry hampered from all sides.
Things become difficult for Tariq enforcing him to display courage as he becomes torn between his family and professional duties. Instantaneous decisions have to be made, bringing into question his priorities as both a senior police officer and a Muslim. Tariq soon realises that sometimes the right decision is the hardest one to make.
Shoot on Sight will be released in the UK nationwide in June 2008.
