Person of Interest questions Prevent’s effects on Muslims

AN UBER driver’s desperate attempt to cope with grief and loss sparks a deeper exploration of what it means to be a British Muslim in Channel 4’s short drama, Person of Interest.

Asim Chaudhry plays Shakil (known for People Just Do Nothing, Industry, What’s Love Got to Do with It), a football loving Londoner whose fears of being surveilled intensify as he drives passengers through the night.

One evening, he encounters a surveillance officer – but is this person real or a manifestation of Shakil’s paranoid, sleep deprived mind?

Person of Interest has been written and directed by Emmy-nominated and multi-BAFTA award winner Aysha Rafaele (Partygate, Consent, Life and Death in the Warehouse, Murdered by My Father). She told Eastern Eye the drama idea came from the government’s Prevent strategy.

“It’s a subject very close to my heart and something I’ve been wanting to do for a very long time,” Rafaele said.

“I come from a British Pakistani Muslim background. Since 9/11 when (George) Bush and (Tony) Blair declared their war on terror, there has been a devastating consequence for ordinary Muslims around the world.

“In Britain, we’ve had the British counter terrorism strategy, Prevent, and post the hysteria around the Trojan horse debacle in Birmingham, (then Conservative secretary of state) Michael Gove intensified what Prevent was for British Muslims. Suddenly people are trying to anticipate what is going on in British Muslims’ minds.”In the drama, the mystery man won’t say who he is, but it’s clear someone has ‘reported’ Shakil. But who, and what is Shakil supposed to be guilty of?

Whether Shakil is actually under surveillance or if it’s simply his paranoid mind in overdrive is left for the audience to decide. However, his interactions with his therapist lead to hints that it might not be all in his mind.

Shakil tells his therapist praying calms him down and that he has found guidance from a new imam at his local mosque. When the therapist responds, saying “the whole faith thing has become quite a big deal for you now”, Rafaele told Eastern Eye it was her way to show the detrimental effect of the Prevent programme.

“Prevent has become something where teachers are ratting on their students, doctors revealing secrets shared in a sacred space with their patients, people’s neighbours calling up on them,” the writer said.

Writer-director Aysha Rafaele

“I’ve read so many stories and done so much research that revealed how this state has ended up making people feel like they’re constantly under surveillance – even sometimes by people in their own families – and feeling that the ordinary signifiers of being Muslim somehow put you at risk of being spied on.

“A person can’t even go about their ordinary Muslim business, whether that’s wearing a hijab, or praying, or holding some prayer beads, or even saying something as innocent and wonderful as Allahu Akbar, without it being something that someone can call Prevent about.”

Rafaele said she also wanted to explore the mental health struggles that men, especially south Asians, experience and how they’re often reluctant to ask for help.

In Person of Interest, Shakil opens up and shares his inner turmoil, saying, “I’m scared, I feel powerless”.

Rafaele said: “I’ve got a son, I’ve got a dad, I’ve got a brother, and I haven’t yet seen on British telly, the experience of what it is to be a British Muslim male at this moment in time.

“The idea was to explore the psyche of this bloke who struggles to articulate what he’s feeling. Talking and sharing isn’t natural to the character of Shakil.”

Chaudhry is mesmerising as Shakil – a man who is so paranoid he resorts to meticulously checking slices of pizza to make sure his wife hasn’t laced it with drugs.

The 38-year-old is one of the stars of the British comedy scene, having made his name as Chabud “Chabuddy G” Gul in the BBC mockumentary series People Just Do Nothing, which he co-created. For this role, he won a Royal Television Society Award and was nominated for two British Academy Television Awards.

Rafaele said she was confident this serious turn from Chaudhry would resonate with the audience.

“Asim is a working-class guy who grew up on a council estate. He said to me, ‘I’ve grown up with loads of blokes who are like this (Shakil).’ For a writer and director, it’s pure joy and magic to the ears to hear that,” said Rafaele.

“I also love working with people where you subvert the expectation of what someone thinks they’re going to get. When people see that he’s cast, they’re probably thinking of all the roles they previously knew him in – and then he surprises them.

“What is wonderful is he’s got brilliant range, and I totally had every confidence he could do it.” Others in the cast include Julia Davis (Nighty Night, A Very British Scandal), who plays Shakil’s doctor, Craig Parkinson (Line of Duty) as a surveillance officer and Posy Sterling, (Playing Nice) as Shakil’s wife, Alice.

For much of the drama, the audience is on the edge of their seats as a result of the panic-inducing music that reflects Shakil’s mental turmoil against a gloomy and dark London night.

In one memorable scene, Shakil and Alice confront their shared grief – the initial trigger for Shakil’s downward spiral. There is no background music, the scene is shot inside a small front room which allows the audience to feel like they are present there, listening to every painful word the characters utter.

Rafaele revealed more details about how the scene was filmed.

Julia Davis appears as Shakil's doctor

“In that scene, which is the culminating, breakdown moment when things are coming to a head, we filmed it with a hand-held (camera), because we wanted the actors to be free to move in the space – (to) pick up a photograph, for example, or even smash an object if they felt like it,” she said.

“You don’t need music for that, what you need is just to be in the emotion. I had written dialogue in for the scene, but again, I said to them, just be as free as you want with the words and take it to wherever you want to go.

“It’s actually the most intimate and heart-breaking moment of the film. I’ve actually known couples who have gone through the trauma of what these characters are portraying, and the thing that should bring two people together ends up being the thing that’s absolutely broken them apart.”

In the end, there is no clear answer as to whether Shakil is the target of state surveillance or if he is suffering from delusions. The beauty of the drama is the clues can be interpreted in different ways by the audience.

Rafaele said, “I am heavily inspired by my favourite directors such as Michael Haneke who did Hidden and Jonathan Glazer, who made Under the Skin. They don’t tell stories in a straightforward, literal fashion – they tend to do things in ways that are a bit more oblique and atmospheric.”

Person of Interest is currently available to watch on Channel 4