My Beautiful Laundrette

My Beautiful Laundrette
Theatrical release poster
Directed byStephen Frears
Written byHanif Kureishi
Produced bySarah Radclyffe
Starring
CinematographyOliver Stapleton
Edited byMick Audsley
Music byStanley Myers
Hans Zimmer
(as Ludus Tonalis)
Production
companies
Distributed byMainline Pictures
Release dates
  • 7 September 1985 (1985-09-07) (TIFF)
  • 16 November 1985 (1985-11-16)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
Languages
  • English
  • Urdu
Budget£650,000
Box office$3 million

My Beautiful Laundrette is a 1985 British romantic comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Frears from a screenplay by Hanif Kureishi. The film was one of the first films released by Working Title Films. The film is set in London during the Thatcher years, and reflects the often fraught relationships between members of the Pakistani and English communities at that time. The story focuses on Omar (Gordon Warnecke), a British man of Pakistani origin, and his reunion and eventual romance with his childhood friend Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis), now a street punk. The two become the caretakers and business managers of a launderette.

The British Film Institute ranked My Beautiful Laundrette as the 50th greatest British film of the 20th century. The film was adapted into a stage play in 2002 and 2019.