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Brick Lane’s queen strikes gold

Brick Lane’s queen strikes gold on the silver screen

Matthew d'Ancona

Wednesday, 17th October 2007

An interview with Monica Ali

Ali believes that an ‘outrage economy’ has arisen in which media and protesters (however unrepresentative) conspire to amplify anger. ‘People assume, having seen the pieces in the paper, that I’ve had a terrible time of it with feedback — but it just hasn’t been the case whatsoever. I have had a really positive response. One or two people are willing to cause a fuss, or are self-publicists and want to secure a position for themselves as spokespeople. It is ludicrous, and it happens in a way that wouldn’t happen outside of an ethnic minority. Why are those people the “community leaders”? They have not been elected to that position.’

Too true. Having reread the novel and watched the film, and being reasonably well-acquainted with the area, I remain baffled by the furore. Is it a battle over the very idea of Bengali Brick Lane, who is entitled to define it in the collective imagination, and who isn’t?

‘I think that there’s probably another agenda,’ says Ali, ‘which is that these are conservative men of a certain age. The idea that this book is about a woman finding some level of self-empowerment and along the way committing adultery, is something that they find very difficult to deal with.’

But surely she is disappointed by the Prince’s craven decision? ‘I think that the film is in the right place for it, at the London Film Festival. It’s a London film and that’s great. I’m disappointed that a public space starts to diminish, in a way, through self-censorship, I think that’s what disappoints me rather than the Royal Film Performance per se.’

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