Hanif Kureishi

Hanif Kureishi (born December 5, 1954 in London), is a Pakistani-British playwright, author, and director on topics of race, nationalism, immigration, and sexuality. He is married and has three sons.

Related Topics:
December 5 - 1954 - London - Pakistan - British - Race - Nationalism - Immigration - Sexuality

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His most famous production was My Beautiful Laundrette, a play about a gay, Pakistani-British boy growing up in 1980's London. My Beautiful Laundrette was later made into a film. It won the New York Film Critics Best Screenplay Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay.

Related Topics:
My Beautiful Laundrette - New York - Academy Award

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His book The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) won the Whitbread Award for the best first novel, and was also made into a BBC television series with a soundtrack by David Bowie.

Related Topics:
The Buddha of Suburbia - 1990 - Whitbread Award - BBC - Soundtrack - David Bowie

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The book Intimacy (1998) created some controversy. The story includes a man leaving his wife and 2 young sons, for he feels physically and emotionally rejected by his wife. The controversy was not the novel itself, but the fact that the author himself, had just recently left his wife and 2 young sons.

Related Topics:
Intimacy - 1998

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In 2000/2001 the novel was loosely adapted to a movie Intimacy by Patrice Chéreau. Its a tragedy about dreams, which do not come true for the lovers do not want to hurt others, or even break up a family. The movie won two Bears at the Berlin Film Festival, a Golden Bear for Best Film, and a Silver Bear for Best Actress (Kerry Fox). It was controversial for its unreserved sex scenes.

Related Topics:
Intimacy - Patrice Chéreau - Berlin Film Festival - Kerry Fox

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The next controversy was about his drama The Mother adapted to a movie by Roger Michell, which won a joint First Prize in the Director?s Fortnight section at Cannes Film Festival. It showed a cross-generational relationship with changed roles: a seventy-year-old English lady and grandmother (Anne Reid) dares to seduce the boy-friend (Peter Vaughan) of her daughter, a thirty-year-old craftsman. Too permissive sex scenes this time are approached via the arts: shown in realistic drawings only, thus avoiding censorship.

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