Rob Munday
How do you judge a great film? For me, longevity and memorability have to be among the key criteria: the ability of a story to stay with you long after you’ve watched it and to stand the test of time when revisited years later. Which brings me to today’s pick, Alien Culture, written and directed by Iesh Thapar. I first experienced the film on the big screen at a Film London screening back in 2018 and it has occupied a corner of my mind ever since. Watching it again recently, I was struck by how little its impact has diminished over the last eight years. If anything, its topicality feels even more pronounced, while its carefully realised period details have given it a timeless quality that only becomes more apparent with age.
Set in London in the late 1970s, following a decade that had witnessed the rise of the National Front (a far-right political party) and the street-level clashes between their supporters and those standing against Fascism, it doesn’t take much digging beneath the surface to understand why the film remains so resonant today. While Thapar acknowledges that the atmosphere depicted in the film felt “very different to the one [he] grew up in”, he also recognises unsettling parallels with the present, pointing to “the advent of extreme right-wing groups and the formation of dangerous perceptions” as significant similarities. However, the film’s relevance extends beyond its initial themes of division and hostility. Without giving too much away, for those who have yet to watch it, Thapar takes the narrative in an unexpected direction, finding room for optimism where we might least expect it. As he explains, he wanted to explore “hope in finding inclusivity in the unlikeliest of places”, ultimately pointing towards a more subtle message about “the power of co-existence”.
At its heart, Alien Culture was conceived as a reminder of “London’s degree of multicultural unity and cohesion”, and its themes grew out of Strangers in Stereo, a feature Thapar has been developing. Loosely inspired by the story of Alien Kulture, the UK’s first real Asian punk band, the feature centres on a younger brother claiming his British Asian identity through punk music. The short, by contrast, shifts its attention to the older brother, using the questioning of his own beliefs to offer a different perspective on the process of breaking down cultural barriers. That these ideas remain so relevant eight years after I first encountered the film is testament not only to Thapar’s thoughtful storytelling, but to the longevity of these films that invite their audience to look beyond their own preconceptions.