The Reluctant Fundamentalist

ABOUT THE FILM: We begin in 2011 in Lahore. At an outdoor café a Pakistani man named Changez (Riz Ahmed) tells Bobby (Liev Schreiber), an American journalist, about his experiences in the United States. Roll back ten years, and we find a younger Changez fresh from Princeton, seeking fortune and glory on Wall Street. The American Dream seems well within his grasp, complete with a smart and gorgeous artist girlfriend, Erica (Kate Hudson). But when the Twin Towers are attacked, a cultural divide slowly begins to crack open between Changez and Erica. Changez’s dream soon begins to slip into nightmare: profiled, wrongfully arrested, strip-searched and interrogated, he is transformed from a well-educated, upwardly mobile businessman to a scapegoat and perceived enemy. With time, he begins to hear the call of his own homeland. Taking us through the culturally rich and beguiling worlds of New York, Lahore and Istanbul, The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a story about conflicting ideologies where perception and suspicion have the power to determine life or death.

Mira Nair is an Academy Award nominated director best known for her visually rich films that pulsate with life. Her debut feature, SALAAM BOMBAY! won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes, followed by the groundbreaking MISSISSIPPI MASALA, the Golden Globe & Emmy-winning HYSTERICAL BLINDNESS and the international hit MONSOON WEDDING, for which she was the first woman to win Venice Film Festival’s coveted Golden Lion. A fiercely independent filmmaker, she then made VANITY FAIR, THE NAMESAKE, THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST, and QUEEN OF KATWE.

Independent producer and leader of PGA-WGA Climate Storytelling Initiative, Lydia Dean Pilcher has produced over 35 feature films, including Queen of Katwe, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Radium Girls, and Cutie & The Boxer, which was nominated for an Academy Award. She has just completed a climate change-themed film called HOMING INSTINCT.