Title: It’s Not What It Looks Like
Genre: Scripted - Dark Comedy
Storyline: Following a supposed "major" incident at a local train station, absurd speculations run rampant on social media, triggering a chain reaction of overreactions, mass panic, and a nationwide manhunt for a non-existent terrorist explosion. In the midst of this chaos, a satirical acting self-tape featuring a young Muslim actress takes centre stage, catching the attention of the National Security Agency.
'It's not what it looks like' takes us through the absurdities inside an anti-terror interview room and through the comedic nature of the characters we exaggerate the difference between mainstream followers of Islam who exist peacefully and extremists who have developed a distorted view of Islam. Whether it’s Asma at the Lake District bootcamp getting mistaken for terrorist training in Syria or contentious messages with her ex-boyfriend, all the circumstantial evidence leads the authorities to the wrong conclusions and reminds us that sometimes, the biggest threat is our own misunderstanding, ignorance and paranoia.
Title: A Happy Ending (2022) Channel 4 Funded
Genre: Scripted - Dark Comedy
Logline: Ms Who takes her husband to court for not giving her a ‘happy ending’
Storyline: Ms Lizzie Who’s marriage would have been ideal if it wasn’t for the orgasm gap. After 5 years of fifty shades of grey, the deflated wife decides to go spiritual but things take the worse turn when the husband mistakenly walks into the ‘happy ending’ massage room. Devastated Lizzie decides to call it an end on a reality court show ‘out of order’ Acclaimed Judge Hope, wants to help the couple cum together but secrets unravel and it turns out that one of them is yet to find out their real sexual orientation.
About the Film: The couple’s story unfolds on a highly-rated reality show ‘out of order’ a stage where women sought to fight what they are denied by the patriarchal society and not just divorce their cheating husbands but challenge inequality, and prejudice. Above all, star of the show, Judge Hope is the kind of woman we need to look up to, instead of the Kardashians.
The film is a parody of reality television court dramas showing melodramatic domestic cases. The film speaks to the cosmopolitan women in the mood of guilty pleasures and explicit drama. Although this is fiction the narrative is presented in a realistic fashion and the format is inspired by the American show ‘Divorce court’ but with a cast similar to what you'd expect in Love Island.
Title: Tell Me About It
Available to watch on Amazon Prime
Storyline: When two spirited teenagers, Amara and Halima, plan a secret escape away from their overbearing parents, their lives take an ominous turn. Amara is unexpectedly kidnapped and mistaken for her best friend Halima, leading to a confrontation with the city's most notorious criminal. As the kidnapper uncovers the truth behind his junior's blunder, he presents Amara with a chilling dilemma. In this unconventional drama, the resilience of family bonds is put to the test, and friendship loyalties are challenged in unforeseen ways.
Title: True Colours (2022)
Released – BFI, Amazon
Genre: Comedy Drama
Logline: True Colours’ is a parallel plot following teenagers Ayesha and Chloe who are neighbours yet inhibit very different worlds and think that the grass is greener on the other side.
Storyline: Ayesha’s traditionalist mother has embedded a perception that correlates fairer skin tone with beauty and personal success thus she is in a dilemma to be true to herself but instead hides under layers and layers of skin whitening products. On the other side, Chloe’s bold and diva-ish mother has set an example to do the opposite i.e. skin tanning and western outlook to achieve similar objectives, thus Chloe hides behind filters that make her skin look tanned.
Watch and hear the inner frustrations of both teenagers and how they actually feel vs how they appear to the world. They imagine how they would like to challenge their overbearing parents and question the external world & society, playing a huge part in defining them. However, young women expressing their self-determination and individualism to the world isn’t risk-free.
Title: What Next? (2020)
Multi-award winning
Released - Film Festivals
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Storyline: A young woman moves out of her hometown, leaving behind a dark past, and now desperately seeks a normal life but instead comes to face unsettling supernatural events and all this during a national lockdown.
Plates (2016)
Released - Various Festivals
Genre: Non-Scripted
Storyline: Award-winning documentary film 'Plates’ explored the alarming global concern of food waste and food poverty.
‘A Documentary providing food for thought on a global scale. The piece, about food waste and food poverty, was shot in West Yorkshire and was recently screened at the Busan Film Festival in South Korea.
In the film, Miss Hanif’s first, she considers the increasing problem of food poverty in the UK and the juxtaposition of growing levels of food waste.’
The Telegraph & Argus
In Development
Title: Hunks in Trunks
Genre: Comedy
Storyline: Front of house manager of the finest male strippers in town, Graham Gibbons has to deal with a pair of lairy drunken lasses crashing into his office with very specific demands.
Hunks in Trunks is a cheeky look at a shady head office of a male strip club and the questionable people that run and frequent them. So, what will happen, when a rowdy mother daughter meet the morally bankrupt manager Graham Gibbons, a man guilty of all the 7 deadly sins... they get more than they bargained for!
Hunks In Trunks began as a misguided sketch in a car crash of an Edinburgh Fringe Festival. At the time, it's production couldn’t afford a legitimate venue but managed to secure a room above a Sports Bar opposite Edinburgh Waverley train station. The sketch was immensely successful at the Edinburgh Fringe generating huge amounts of hype and bringing laughter to hundreds each day. So we know there is an audience for this.
Long-form ideas in Development
Title: Adam Vs Satan
Tagline: Everything forbidden is desirable
Genre: Comedy Drama Series
Storyline: Prince Adam has fled the palace to marry the woman he's secretly been chatting with on a dating app. Just one problem: It’s Satan who has been catfishing him, and has terrible plans afoot to steal the crown.
Arguably the first lesson in human history, the first person on earth to make a mistake. This idea is inspired by the Story of Adam and Eve. Imagine the creative possibilities of this high concept universally understood and told from a modern perspective.
Title: 13 O’Clock – Feature Film
Tagline: For some people, nothing is scarier than their reality
Genre: Mystery Comedy Drama
Storyline: A man with just 12 hours of memory must retrace his identity with help from strangers before the reality of time consumes him forever.