THEY HEARD HIM SHOUT ALLAHU AKBAR
Category: Press Pack Article11 min|UK|2021
Directed by Nadia Latif
Written by Omar El-Khairy
Produced by Fiona Lamptey
Featuring Scott Karim
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In their second collaboration writer Omar El-Khairy and director Nadia Latif turn a well-known sci-fi trope on its head, carving out a modern but ancient tale that should be a stark warning to us all.
Logline
Zaid, recently released from prison for an unknown crime, tries to reintegrate into his previous life, only to find that the arms of the state can control what he says and does.
Production Story
In They Heard Him Shout Allahu Akbar, Omar El-Khairy and director Nadia Latif turn a familiar story on its head to deliver a profound and devastatingly relevant science fiction film.
The film explores the future of surveillance technology and its impact on black and brown bodies in the UK which evolved from the question: what would a Muslim cyborg origin story look like? Their shared experience of being Muslim in the UK is central to the story and acts as an elegant response to how contemporary Muslim life is depicted on screen – often if not always framed under suspicion, and always with a hint of expected violence, thinly veiled.
Neither filmmaker had intentions to make a science fiction film, but the genre allowed them to examine, deconstruct and reframe the trope of de-radicalising suspected criminals. There are obvious nods to Kubrick’s sci-fi classic A Clockwork Orange, and Latif’s love of ‘schlocky’ B-movies is evident.
Scott Karim, who plays protagonist Zaid was the only actor the filmmakers considered and it's obvious from the outset. Despite the Orwellian interference placed upon him, Zaid is full of grace and strength. Karim had previously worked with Latif and El-Khairy on their short White Girl and collectively their shared UK Muslim perspectives once again brought authenticity to this film, whilst never over-stating it. Unlike Malcolm Campbell’s Alex, we never know if Zaid is a hero or a villain and the film is all the more impactful for it.
A powerful and imposing score from composer Gaika further evokes the pain and torture inside Zaid’s mind and impressive visual effects from Jeremy Ngatha Cole gently remind us that we are not in fact watching a historic film about an authoritarian foreign state but a projection of the future, the recognisable shots of North London and the eponymous Underground is even more unsettling.
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Zaid |
Scott Karim |
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Cora |
Mona Dumezweni |
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Nurse |
Emma D’arcy |
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Men in Pub |
Francis Lovehall |
|
|
Theo Barklem-Biggs |
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Kola Bokinni |
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Voicemail |
Ria Zmitrowicz |
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Slut Line |
Jemima Rooper |
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Tannoy |
Kiza Deen |
HODs
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Director Writer Producer Associate Producer |
Nadia Latif Omar El-Khairy Fiona Lamptey Samira Musa |
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Director of Photography |
Olan Collardy |
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Editor |
Mdhamiri Á Nkemi |
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Production Designer |
Christopher Melgram |
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Costume Designer |
Justin Hamilton |
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Composer |
Gaika |
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1st Assistant Director |
Yasmin Godo |
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Production Sound Mixer |
Malcolm Cromie |
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Supervising Sound Editor |
Chad Orororo |
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Casting Director |
Isabella Odoffin |
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Key Makeup & Special Effects Artist |
Laura Viale Durand |
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Post Production Supervisor |
Grace Bridger |
Scott Karim - Zaid
Scott Karim is a theatre, television and film actor based in England. He has worked on The Arrival (the Bush Theatre), Oklahoma!, The Country Wife (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Village (Theatre Royal, Stratford East), Young Marx (Bridge), Imogen, The Merchant of Venice (The Globe Theatre) Dara, Great Britain, Othello (The National Theatre). His television credits include Halo, The Dumping Ground (BBC) and Dracula (Hartswood Films). They Heard Him Shout Allahu Akbar marks Scott's second role in film, following his debut in White Girl in 2014
Nadia Latif - Director
Nadia Latif is a theatre and film director and has worked for theatres including the Almeida, Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, the Bush Theatre and the Arcola. From 2018 to 2020 she was associate director of the Young Vic theatre, and ended her tenure there directing the critically acclaimed sell-out production of Jackie Sibblies-Drury’s Pulitzer Prize winning play, Fairview. Her first short film, White Girl, a horror about white feminism, supported by BFI NETWORK, played internationally at several festivals, including screening in competition at the 2019 BFI London Film Festival. Nadia is developing a number of feature film projects, including a horror film with the BFI, Film4 and Dominic Buchanan, an adaptation of the Walter Mosley novel The Man In My Basement with Protagonist Pictures, and a British historical drama with Film4 and Caledonia Productions. In 2019 she was named one of Screen International’s Stars of Tomorrow, and in 2020 she was a Sundance Screenwriters Lab fellow.
Omar El-Khairy - Writer
Omar El-Khairy is a writer for stage and screen. He is a former Leverhulme Associate Playwright at the Bush Theatre, an alumnus of The Old Vic 12 and a 2020 Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab Fellow. His plays include Burst, Sour Lips, The Keepers of Infinite Space, Homegrown and The Mob Reformers. His work is published by Oberon Books. His first short film, No Exit, received its world premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival 2014 and his latest short, White Girl, supported by BFI NETWORK, screened in competition at the 2019 BFI London Film Festival and internationally at numerous festivals. Omar is developing feature film projects with Dominic Buchanan, the BFI, Film4 and BBC Films and an original television series with Firebird Pictures.
Fiona Lamptey - Producer
Fiona Lamptey is a producer and the newly appointed Director of U.K Features for Netflix. She graduated in Film and Video Production at the University of Bedfordshire in 2004 and shortly after got an offer from Channel4 to work on documentary, reality and live entertainment television. After five years in TV commissioning, she went to work for Channel4's feature film division Film4, where she helped manage low-budget and short film production. Always on the lookout for distinct British talent, Fiona set up her company Fruit Tree Media, where she remains founder and creative producer today. Her aim with Fruit Tree is to seek out filmmaking talent and use her industry experience to cultivate original storytelling and champion unrepresented voices within a structured and supportive framework. Fiona has served as a tutor and workshop facilitator for the National Film and Television School, a live event host for BAFTA and a mentor to new writing talent. Fiona has produced a number of distinctive and cross-disciplinary works and has been a support and launchpad for some of the UK’s most exciting talent. In 2019 she was named one of Screen International’s Stars of Tomorrow and received a BFI Vision Award the following year. As well as producing the mini sci-fi series for Film4 in 2020, Fiona also produced Debbie Tucker Green's much anticipated second feature film, Ear For Eye.
Samira Musa - Associate Producer
Samira Musa is a British-Somali film producer based in the UK. Her ambition is to uncover, produce and archive impact driven stories to fuel the next generation of leaders globally. AS well as working across all five of the films in Film4's Sci-Fi series, Samira was associate producer for Aisha and Abhaya, a co-production between The Royal Ballet and Rambert, in association with BBC Films and Robin Saunders. Samira’s film credits include Ear for Eye (production manager) written and directed by Debbie Tucker Green. Short film credits include Fate (producer), a British-Somali film challenging the pressure of weddings in the Somali community; The Cost of Bronze (executive producer), a film about a woman who refuses to be erased which was in official selection at Underwire Festival and also a semi-finalist at the Los Angeles CineFest. Her latest production accountant credits include Barbarians directed by Charlie Dofman and The Last Bus directed by Gillies MacKinnon, starring Timothy Spall.
Olan Collardy - Director of Photography
Olan Collardy’s cinematography is an infusion of his passion for art, culture and style. His unique attention to detail and aesthetics coupled with the ability to craft light enables him to capture the dramatic and compelling images he has become known for. The diversity of his work is exemplified from a range of short drama series (BBC, Channel4, Sky) to his separate work with a client base of brands within fashion, lifestyle and luxury (Calvin Klein, Nike, Puma, Guerlain, Offwhite). He is also responsible for a series of short films that have generated a cult following amongst indie film enthusiasts. His accolades include a best narrative short Tribeca Film Festival win, Short of The Week, BFI Future Film Festival and a Sundance Film Festival selection.
Mdhamiri Á Nkemi - Editor
Filmmaker Mdhamiri á Nkemi, a Screen Star of Tomorrow 2019, graduated from the National Film and Television School, where he received the Toledo Scholarship and was awarded the year’s most promising student award. As an editor, he has worked on films that have been Academy® and BAFTA-longlisted, BIFA-winning (The Last Tree) and award-winning (Blue Story: NME Best Film & Best Actor, The Devil’s Harmony: Sundance Jury Prize for Best International Short, Facing It: Animage Grand Prix & Audience Awards; Circle: IDA Student Documentary Award, CIFF Best Short). Represented by Casarotto Ramsay & Associates in the UK, and ICM in the US, he has cut several feature-length dramas, as well as a high-end TV series and numerous fiction, documentary and animation shorts, premiering and winning awards at festivals such as Sundance, Berlinale, TIFF, SXSW and the BFI London Film Festival.
Chad Orororo - Supervising Sound Editor
Chad Orororo is an award-winning sound designer who has worked on a number of high-end feature documentaries including the Oscar®-winning documentary The White Helmets. He was the sound designer for the BIFA-nominated short, The Forgotten C, and has provided sound design for BAFTA and Emmy-nominated documentary Three Identical Strangers, Netflix’s Don't F*** With Cats, and Tell Me Who I Am, nominated at the British Independent Film Awards. Chad was the winner of the Best Sound Design Award at the Music + Sound Awards UK for the documentary feature Serendipity. In 2019, Chad won the RTS Award for Sound ( Entertainment & Non-Drama) for Married to a Paedophile and has been nominated twice for the MPSE Golden Reel Award 2019 & 2020 for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing. Chad is currently a junior dubbing mixer with Molinare, where he started in 2015 as edit support and worked his way up to assistant re-recording mixer, working under one of Molinare's most highly regarded re-recording mixers; George Foulgham.
Christopher Melgram - Production Designer
Christopher Melgram is a queer, black, production designer, art director & co-founder of Studio Augmenta based in east London. His broad practice is currently based within the British film industry and spans fashion, music, advertising & immersive design. With a keen eye for architectural design and cultural history, his work combines meticulous research, draughtsmanship & experimentation with a strong interest in set decoration.
Gaika - Composer
Gaika is a composer and multi-disciplinary artist hailing from south london. His creative output has always straddled different worlds, taking influence from academia, philosophy and political theory as much as the influence of fellow musicians. Born out of his travels through the many global currents of contemporary London, Gaika’s music is dark yet melodic, experimental yet catchy. While drawing strongly from his Brixton upbringing and his Jamaican and Grenadian heritage, GAIKA’s sound is ultimately expansive, seamlessly weaving musical motifs, vocal flows and slangs of UK, US and Caribbean music. As both a vocalist and producer, GAIKA is as uncompromising in his politics as his sonics, intent on expanding and exploding the ideas of what contemporary black British music is. From his debut mixtape Machine in 2015 all the way to his debut LP, GAIKA is channelling the unique synthesis of the UK’s musical make-up, firmly at the forefront of a new London.
Grace Bridger - Post Production Supervisor
Originally from Perth, Western Australia, London based Producer Grace Bridger works across independent short films and features. Grace has produced a number of projects alongside Writer/Director Runyararo Mapfumo as Dessymak Productions. Their short film Masterpiece premiered at BFI London Film Festival 2017 and finished the festival circuit with over a dozen official selections and nominations. She went on to develop and produce Dawn In The Dark supported by BBC Films and BFI NETWORK which premiered at BFI London Film Festival 2019. Grace then Produced Runyararo's BBC and Google Arts commissioned short Sensational Simmy which was released and broadcast on BBC and BBC iPlayer. Grace developed and secured funding from Uncertain Kingdom for Runyararo's documentary What’s In A Name? before handing over the project to another producer during her relocation to Bradford to work as Production Secretary on Clio Barnard's BBC Films and BFI supported feature film, Ali & Ava. This was part of her on-going work with producer Tracy O'Riordan at Moonspun Films as Producer's Assistant and then Assistant Producer. Previously through these roles Grace worked in post production on Hong Khaou's Monsoon and assisted Producer Tracy O'Riordan during the production of Film4's Dream Horse, starring Toni Collete and Damien Lewis. After working with Producer Fiona Lamptey (BFI Vision Award Winner) as Post Production Supervisor on the Sci-Fi short films, Grace moved into the role of Creative Assistant at Netflix in the newly formed UK Features team supporting Fiona.
Isabella Odoffin - Casting Director
Isabella Odoffin is a casting director from London with a career spanning over 12 years. Following casting music videos and short films for film studies students whilst studying for a degree in english and drama, she has since gone on to work across a unique mix of casting for film, theatre and television. In 2019 she was named as one of Screen International’s Stars of Tomorrow and in 2020 won the CDG Best Casting in Theatre Award for her work on Rufus Norris’ Small Island at the National Theatre. Further screen credits include casting director on Blue Story, for which she won Best Casting for an Independent Film and casting associate on The Favourite directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.
Laura Viale Durand - Key Makeup and Special Effects Artist
Laura Viale Durand moved to England from France, where she trained in makeup and wig making at first, and completed her training with a year in special makeup effects and prosthetics, both at Metamorphoses school in Strasbourg. Laura has been working as a special effects makeup artist since 2013 and has provided practical special effects for film, theatre, music videos, and the entertainment sector, working at first as a trainee and assistant and then as a technician. Meanwhile, Laura co-founded Father Phantom Studio in 2015, alongside fellow artist Ben Fallaize. They provide special makeup effects services between Birmingham and London.
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