Creed
Nayel is optimistic about performing at the soccer championships while observing Ramadan. Despite his expectations, he soon realises that his coach and soccer team are not on board. Nayel is forced to choose between his commitment to his faith and his game.
Interview with Writer/Director Shejuti Hossain
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
Creed was made to spread awareness about the inner conflict many young immigrants feel between their own faith and culture and that of their new environment. It explores this issue by focusing on Nayel's soccer team not understanding his need to fast during Ramadan and their subsequent concerns of his ability to perform in the championships.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
This film allows the audience to explore a type of identity crisis. Identity crises are something everyone goes through in their own way, the audience will be able to empathise with Nayel, through a different lens.
Why is this important? To broaden the audience's capacity to understand those around them. It's my sincere hope that most people generally want to live in peace and harmony as opposed to conflict. By taking a moment to understand people who seem different to ourselves, we can realise that we're not all that different.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
The universal theme in the film is the conflict in defining one's identity. What kind of a person do I want to be? What are my values? This is something that people of all races and cultures think about at some point in their lives. Our everyday decisions shape who we are, and who we want to be. The people we surround ourselves with also do the same. This theme is explored in this film.
On a personal level, the theme is duty. Nayel feels duty to his family, to his faith and to his soccer team. The conflict arises in which is more pressing for him and his values.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
It has evolved quite a bit. The story started off being about a girl not having lunch and being unable to properly explain to her friends why. This then leads to her feeling alienated from her friends who judge her for being 'so extreme' in her worship.
It then took on many forms including being set during the FIFA world championships at one point. Eventually, we stripped it back to a raw, powerful and relatable story about a young man being hindered from his soccer championship dreams due to his persistence with fasting for his faith. He believes he can juggle all and is happy to, however, he doesn't receive the support that he needs to make that happen.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
Feedback has been positive, people have loved the message that the film portrays.
Many have remarked that this is a story that needed to be told. It is apparent that there is not a lot of representation out there of young Muslim immigrants in Australia. They are people with similar dreams and goals as other Australians, however, there is a whole part of their identity that is not fully advocated and normalised. They are still often cast aside as the outsider unless they comprise their own character to fit in. People in my community have praised the production of this film as it is one step to normalising this minority in Australia.
A few people, including lead actor Oz Malik himself, have said that this story is akin to their own life story.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
Not yet.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
My aim with this film has always been and will always be to spread awareness and understanding about our beautiful faith of Islam. I get so upset when people present their negative, wild and uncorroborated views on Islam to me, and this film aims to be a step in eradicating that.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Journalists, film festival directors and distributors are the main people that need to come on board to spread the film's message.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I want this film to change people's views towards Islam and other cultures in general. I mainly want people to understand that there is always another side to a story, another layer, and the more curious you are about it the more you realise that humans all over the world are not so different from each other.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Could it be argued that Coach Sophia was telling Nayel to choose between soccer and fasting from a place of concern for his own wellbeing as opposed to a place of prejudice?
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
We are working on a short film about youth homelessness.
Interview: May 2019
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
Creed
Nayel is optimistic about performing at the soccer championships while observing Ramadan. Despite his expectations, he soon realises that his coach and soccer team are not on board. Nayel is forced to choose between his commitment to his faith and his game.
Length: 11:53
Director: Shejuti Hossain
Producer: Julieanne Nguyen
Writer: Shejuti Hossain
About the writer, director and producer:
SHEJUTI HOSSAIN was raised in Australia after immigrating from Bangladesh at a young age with her family. She has always been aware of the difficulties of forming an identity in an environment with two often conflicting cultures - eg. the Australian culture, and the Bengali culture. This has become an area of interest for Shejuti and she has explored an aspect of it in her short film Creed.
JULIEANNE NGUYEN’s producer role allowed her to observe behind the lens of the acting. She was able to feel the emotions of scenes portraying themes of cultural challenges and family expectations in Creed. After Creed, she continues to grapple with topics of dual identities using film and visual media. She made a short film, Grey, screened during Cultural Diversity Week last year. She encourages young people to make first-hand personal reflection stories using accessible phone devices to share, engage and evoke discussion.
Key cast: Oz Malik (Nayel), Sioban Tuke (Coach Sophia), Ismat Ara Hossain (Nayel's Mum).
Looking for: distributors, journalists, film festival directors
Hashtags used: #ramadan #muslim #soccer #intercultural #familyvalues #faith #outsider #twoworlds #cultureclash #identity #identitycrisis #shortfilm #independentshortfilm #melbourne #australia #multiculturalyouth #multicultural #buildingresillience #socialcohesion
Made in association with: Big Red Films
Funders: Australia Post, Victoria Government, Brimbank City Council