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This book explores the interactions of comedy and drama within a group of significant and influential films released during the decade of the 1990s. It examines a group of British films from this period which engage with economic and social issues in unusual and compelling ways.
. The chapter concludes with case studies of Brassed Off (Mark Herman, 1996) and The Full Monty (Peter Cattaneo, 1997), two films invoking very different cultural traditions as possible activities for unemployed males and troubled communities in modern British society. Chapter 2 discusses a number of contemporary British films focusing upon the experiences of British-Asian and African-Caribbean
African-Caribbean characters as a way of scaring away a group of tenacious, white, sitting tenants. When Fiji seizes control of the mysterious negative power that has been bestowed on him by white panic, he is both subverting and ironically confirming the racist narrative that has been used against him. Yet his situation is not improved by this reclamation of agency; the men are still homeless at the end of the story, and Selvon leaves hanging the question of who, in the end, has really been cursed in the course of this uncanny transaction. The
dreams and aspirations may lead to a succession of disputes which become sour and petty, and one would have to acknowledge that several of the 1990s films discussed do contain characters who dream of escaping from Britain to America or Pakistan in search of a more fulfilling and authentic existence. If films such as Bhaji on the Beach and East is East are prepared to depict British-Asian or African-Caribbean characters in an