Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'The Taqwacores'


Posted April 4, 2011 by Dennis King Comment on this article Leave a comment

This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is:

“The Taqwacores”

Muslim ideology and punk rock form an uneasy alliance in “The Taqwacores,” an edgy, stereotype-busting feature film due out on DVD Tuesday.

The 2010 film from writer-director Eyad Zahra has drawn comparisons to Danny Boyle’s “Trainspotting” and David Fincher’s “Fight Club” for its emotional intimacy, dark world view and mordant humor.

The story, based on a 2004 cult novel by Michael Muhammad Knight (who also co-wrote the screenplay), focuses on Yusef (Bobby Naderi), a first-generation Pakistani-American engineering student who moves off-campus with a group of Muslim punks in Buffalo, N.Y. His new “un-orthodox” roomies share Yusef’s Muslim faith, albeit in radically unconventional ways. Some drink or take drugs. Others argue passionately over the Koran and rip pages from the book when they disagree with doctrine.

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King spent 31 years as an ink-stained wretch working for newspapers in Seminole, Ada, Oklahoma City and Tulsa. He holds a B.A. degree in English...

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