My Beautiful Laundrette

Nearly 15 years after his first feature film, Gumshoe, and more than a decade of directing plays for British TV, director Stephen Frears made his breakthrough with 1985's My Beautiful Laundrette, featuring an Oscar-nominated screenplay written by playwright Hanif Kureishi. Omar (Gordon Warnecke), son of a Pakistani immigrant in London who takes over the management of a failing launderette owned by his entrepreneurial uncle (Saeed Jaffrey) in a seedy neighborhood, is a total outsider. Although born and raised in Britain, Omar is still seen as an immigrant by his white neighbors, plus he's gay, a secret that he keeps from his family. The film was also a breakout for Daniel Day-Lewis (who won awards from the National Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Circle), playing a rough and tumble street-smart gay punk who turns his back on his racist buddies and resumes a relationship with his old school-chum/boyfriend Omar, a romance that is kept under wraps from their friends and families. My Beautiful Laundrette remains a provocative film, a grungy yet dynamic portrait of race and prejudice in the Thatcher-era London of East Indian immigrants and neo-Nazi gangs, but also a very human story about individuals struggling to find their identity and place in a complicated culture. Extras include new interviews (with the director, writer, and producers), and a booklet. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)