Written and directed by BAFTA award-winning Peter Kosminsky, Britz is a gripping two-part thriller about a young brother and sister, both British-born and Muslim, who are pulled in radically different directions by their conflicting personal experiences in post 9/11 Britain.
Part one follows the story of Sohail (Riz Ahmed - The Road to Guantanamo ). A young Muslim Brit, Sohail is ambitious and university educated. His desire to assimilate into every aspect of contemporary British culture sees him driven into the open arms of MI5 where his first assignment is to help track down a terrorist cell linked to the July 7th London bombers. The enquiry leads him back to his own community in Bradford where no one, not even his closest friends, is above suspicion. Unsure if he is being used to entrap his own, Sohail is forced to question where his loyalties really lie, with the Pakistani Muslim community or with the country of his birth, England.
Part two follows the story of Nasima (Manjinder Virk). Unlike her brother, Nasima, a medical student in Leeds, is deeply suspicious of the British establishment and spends much of her time campaigning against repressive government policies.
She witnesses at first-hand the relentless targeting of her Muslim neighbours and finds herself increasingly alienated by the British Government's domestic policy. The turning point is when her best friend kills herself after being abused while under arrest for innocently falling foul of the new anti-terror laws. Nasima is not only forced to question her liberal views, she is left feeling so angry at and estranged from the country of her birth, that she embarks on an extraordinary journey that eventually takes her to a terrorist training camp in north-west Pakistan.
Britz airs 31 Oct and 1 Nov on Channel 4 @ 9.00pm each night.
Part one follows the story of Sohail (Riz Ahmed - The Road to Guantanamo ). A young Muslim Brit, Sohail is ambitious and university educated. His desire to assimilate into every aspect of contemporary British culture sees him driven into the open arms of MI5 where his first assignment is to help track down a terrorist cell linked to the July 7th London bombers. The enquiry leads him back to his own community in Bradford where no one, not even his closest friends, is above suspicion. Unsure if he is being used to entrap his own, Sohail is forced to question where his loyalties really lie, with the Pakistani Muslim community or with the country of his birth, England.
Part two follows the story of Nasima (Manjinder Virk). Unlike her brother, Nasima, a medical student in Leeds, is deeply suspicious of the British establishment and spends much of her time campaigning against repressive government policies.
She witnesses at first-hand the relentless targeting of her Muslim neighbours and finds herself increasingly alienated by the British Government's domestic policy. The turning point is when her best friend kills herself after being abused while under arrest for innocently falling foul of the new anti-terror laws. Nasima is not only forced to question her liberal views, she is left feeling so angry at and estranged from the country of her birth, that she embarks on an extraordinary journey that eventually takes her to a terrorist training camp in north-west Pakistan.
Britz airs 31 Oct and 1 Nov on Channel 4 @ 9.00pm each night.