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Trailer Watch: Riz Ahmed Stars as the 'Reluctant Fundamentalist' in Mira Nair's Tale of Post-9/11 Paranoia

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Check out the trailer for Mira Nair's "The Reluctant Fundamentalist," which opened the 2012 Venice Film Festival and stars Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Liev Shreiber and Keifer Sutherland. Nair ("Monsoon Wedding," "The Namesake") adapted Mohsin Hamid's international bestseller of the same title, a thriller told in flashback centering on a Pakistani man (Ahmed) whose promising Wall Street career and relationship with his girlfriend (Hudson) disintegrate following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

By Beth Hanna
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February 21, 2013 12:52 PM
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Festivals

Director Mira Nair was put in the unusual position of having to defend her film, 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist', from conflicting suggestions of pro- and anti-American bias at the film's press conference as opening-night film for the 4th Doha Tribeca Film Festival. One regional journalist wanted to know why Riz Ahmed's Changez, the Pakistani protagonist who switches from successful Wall Street trader to fundamentalist Muslim professor (and possible terrorist) in a post-9/11 world, repeats the phrase, "I love America"; another questioned whether the film's mistrustful ending ultimately serves as a condemnation of the U.S.