In the prologue for Brick Lane, young Nazneen and her beloved sister Hasina (Zafreen) play together during what will be their last carefree moments on this earth. Their mother looks at them sullenly, and through a series of close-ups and cuts, the film practically screams out: Mom's going to commit suicide! She does, and the film expects us to be surprised and shocked. Nazneen is shipped off to London for an arranged marriage, and by the time the credits finish, Nazneen has been there long enough to raise two 'tween girls.

The time jump is a bit jarring, and it's done with the same carelessness as the prologue. But soon we meet Nazneen's husband, a fat, cartoonish lout, Chanu (Satish Kaushik), who is apparently educated and well-read but who lacks the most basic elements of common sense. When he mentions the promotion that he's sure to get at his job, we know it's all over for him. Nobody ever gets a promotion in the first reel of a movie, but Chanu doesn't know that, nor do the filmmakers. It's as infuriating as watching teenagers in horror films split up to search the woods.

BAFTA-winning director Sarah Gavron has her first feature film coming up -- a drama called Brick Lane. The Hollywood Reporter has now posted that Sony Picture Classics has picked up both the North and South American rights to the film, set to be released in the UK this November. The movie is based on Monica Ali's 2003 novel, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2003. The Book, and film, have been embroiled in controversy with the Bangladeshi community, as they say the works paint them in a negative light. There's even a "Campaign Against Monica Ali's Film Brick Lane," which Germaine Greer allegedly supports.

Brick Lane is about a Bangladeshi woman named Nazneen (Tannishtha Chatterjee), who accepts her parents' arranged marriage to Chanu (Satish Kaushik), who is twice her age and lives in England. The story follows her life -- how it contrasts with her free-spirited sister Hasina (Zafreen), the children Nazneen has, how she tries to bend fate to her will rather than change it and the affair she has with Karim (Christopher Simpson), a Muslim radical. (Interesting note: obviously, "Simpson" isn't very Muslim -- the actor often plays Anglo-Indian roles, but his background is Irish, Greek and Rwandan.) It'll be interesting to see the film, both how well it is adapted (by the pens of Abi Morgan and Laura Jones) and the response to it -- once it expands well beyond the small community currently opposing it.