Honour (15)

Directed by Shan Khan

3 Stars

The controversial and growing issue of honour killings forms the basis for this totally gripping urban thriller set in west London.

Writer Shan Khan pulls no punches in the opening 20 minutes of his directorial debut. The sight of young British Muslim girl Mona (Aiysha Hart) suddenly being strangled by her brother and mother because they feel she has shamed them by planning to run away with her Punjabi boyfriend makes for difficult viewing.

When she goes on the run after surviving the attack her family hire a bounty hunter (Paddy Considine) to kill her.

Through flashbacks we learn how Mona ended up in her deadly predicament at the hands of her brother who is a police officer, another disturbing revelation.

Honour is insightful but flawed. I very much doubt that Mona would have survived such an attack or that her family would have employed an outsider to carry out their dirty work.

According to UN figures 5,000 women and girls are killed globally every year by family members. In Britain, it is believed that up to 12 such murders happen every year.

These statistics shed a shocking new light on a taboo subject and hopefully Honour will be the catalyst for a much-needed debate on the issue.

Maria Duarte