Victoria & Abdul (2017)

[Crichax]

For those unfamiliar, this movie retells the story of Queen Victoria becoming unlikely friends with a Muslim named Abdul.

In the movie, the queen's family are biased against foreigners in general, even confusing Muslim cultural practices for those of Hindus. As xenophobic as that sounds, they do happen to be (rightfully) skeptical of Islam and their grievances are never portrayed as anything other than "muh xenophobia".

What do you all think of this film and its (debatable) status as propaganda for British Muslims?

 

[Gustav Schuchardt]

Sounds like Islamic Content to me.

 

[BoingBoingBoi]

based on your precis, the subject matter might make the movie interesting to watch? but would be interested to know if there is a better historical introduction to their relationship between the two? seems a potentially interesting story. is there a good documentary or book on the topic?

 

[Crichax]

based on your precis, the subject matter might make the movie interesting to watch? but would be interested to know if there is a better historical introduction to their relationship between the two? seems a potentially interesting story. is there a good documentary or book on the topic?

I haven't seen anything else on the topic.

 

[BoingBoingBoi]

I haven't seen anything else on the topic.

Victoria and Abdul: The Friendship that Scandalized England

Near the end of her reign, Queen Victoria developed a friendship with an Indian servant, elevating him to trusted advisor and infuriating her court

www.smithsonianmag.com

The True Story Behind Victoria and Abdul

The author of the book behind the movie on a story nearly erased from history

time.com

Victoria and Abdul: The Real Story Behind the Queen’s Controversial Relationship

The film adaptation, out in theaters Friday, stars Judi Dench and Ali Fazal.

www.vanityfair.com

there's a few "the true story behind the movie" kind of articles around. might be worth a read.

 

[TungstenCarbide]

Sounds like Islamic Content to me.

It is. Last year a friend watched it and she told me she was really perplexed by the way Islamic culture was portrayed, especially the fact that women are forced to cover completely is treated as if it's perfectly normal, if not admirable. Apparently the movie has even a gag about this. While I'm sure that the relationship between Queen Victoria and her butler is interesting, this movie is not the best way to be introduced to it.

 

[LordofTendons]

The movie sugar coats Islam, paints Edward VII as a straight up villain with no motivation for what he does except for just hating the brown guy and makes Abdul look like a saint. It glosses over incidents for which the average modern viewer has absolutely no context, so they have no idea why people at court can't stand this guy. He's portrayed as just an innocent man who was just serving his queen and not at all a servant who might have let his ego get out of hand when the queen gave him her favor. There was a really good documentary out at the time this movie was released that got into how this guy got full of himself and how the photographs were a much bigger issue than just taking a picture. I think this is the one.

 

[Red Hood]

Victoria was a Kraut sleeper agent anyway.