Night Out
2018 · 10m · UK
Directed by Amelia Hashemi
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, LGBTQ+
Tones: contemplative, tender
A group of teenage girls head out to a London nightclub, but for Meena — a mixed-race Muslim girl quietly negotiating family expectations, friendships, and her own emerging sexuality — the evening becomes something far more revealing than a night out.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
It's a competent coming-of-age story about identity, sure, but Hashemi's playing it so earnestly within the lanes of queer awakening and cultural negotiation that there's no real bite—no moment where the film actually surprises you or refuses the audience's comfort.
Hashemi situates herself deliberately within the British social-realist tradition while honoring the specificity of diasporic Muslim girlhood; the film's formal restraint—its willingness to let a nightclub become a space of internal reckoning rather than spectacle—marks a considered entry into that lineage.
The film lives or dies on Meena's face in the club's dim light, and Hashemi's decision to hold on her throughout the evening—watching her watch others, watching her watch herself—transforms what could be a generic night-out narrative into something achingly specific about desire and displacement on a budget that demands precision.
Reviews
Hashemi explores themes of sexuality and race in this coming of age drama... a personal story leaning on her own experience coming from a mixed British/Muslim household and dealing with identity as a teen.
Wins Best British Short Film at Leeds International Film Festival — a vital, sharply observed portrait of growing up in London.
Festivals
- BFI London Film Festival 2018
- Leeds International Film Festival 2018, Best British Short Film
- Film London Awards (London Calling) 2018, Best Short 2018
- London Critics' Circle Film Awards 2019, Nominee — Short Film
- BFI Flare 2019
- British Independent Film Awards 2018