9 My Beautiful Laundrette
1985, Stephen Frears
This is a film that I found a little harder to appreciate, but it is still an extremely highly regarded film for its genre. Not only do we deal with homo***uality here, we also deal with multi-racial relationships. This is, as far as I am aware, the only film which deals with both issues. Set in a launderette during the Thatcher years, this film is historically interesting and a bonus for those who love the 80s.
Synopsis: My Beautiful Laundrette is set within the Asian community in London, during the Thatcher years, and displays those values, of money but ‘anybody can make it.’ Omar gains the running of his Uncle Nasser’s laundrette. He is helped by his friend Johnny who is an outsider, white but not entirely accepted by either the white or Asian Londoners. There are many memorable characters: Tania, Omar’s cousin whom he might marry. Salim the manager of Nasser’s garage and sometime drug importer. Rachel, Nasser’s white mistress, who like Johnny seems to be another outsider.