They Heard Him Shout Allahu Akbar
2021 · 11m · UK
Directed by Nadia Latif
Tones: melancholic, provocative, tense
In a near-future UK, recently released prisoner Zaid is implanted with a mind-control device that overrides his bodily autonomy whenever the state deems his behavior suspicious. As he tries to reintegrate into normal life, he discovers the reach of surveillance technology over Black and brown bodies.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Mind-control sci-fi trope flipped onto Muslim surveillance — Film4-pedigree, Emma D'Arcy. The premise is razor-sharp; the prestige sheen is what worries me.
Latif's second collaboration with El-Khairy for Film4, refiguring the cyborg-origin trope around Islamophobia and state surveillance — the channel pedigree is real and the politics are urgent. The conceit deserves a longer form, but the form is what we have.
Film4 commission with Latif and El-Khairy, 11:35 — the page's "turn a well-known sci-fi trope on its head" framing tracks with the implant-as-state-surveillance premise. Black Mirror-shaped political sci-fi built around a Muslim protagonist is a needed object.
Reviews
Cinematographer Olan Collardy's intimate photography stays close to the excellent Scott Karim, who portrays Zaid's suffering with fierce intensity.
Latif and El-Khairy turn a familiar story on its head to deliver a profound and devastatingly relevant science fiction film.
Festivals
- Underwire Film Festival 2022