FOR Riz Ahmed, 2022 was likely a memorable year as the British Asian star won an Academy Award in March for the short film ‘The Long Goodbye’, produced Joyland, a transgender love story set in Pakistan and capped it off in December with his 40th birthday.
Actor and musician Ahmed took home his first Oscar last year for the 12-minute short in which he also starred as a protagonist in a film portraying the experience of an Asian family in a western country where far-right views, Islamophobia and racism are on the rise.
The movie shows chilling visuals, raising alarm against ethnic discrimination, hatred and a hostile anti-immigrant environment.
In his acceptance speech, Ahmed voiced the importance of togetherness in divided times, saying, “In such divided times, we believe the role of story is to remind us there is no ‘us’ and ‘them’. There’s just ‘us’.
“This is for everyone who feels like they don’t belong. Anyone who feels like they’re stuck in no man’s land. You’re not alone. We’ll meet you there. That’s where the future is. Peace.”
The movie’s soundtrack and inspiration came from Ahmed’s 2020 concept album, The Long Goodbye, which also reflected the Britain’s relationship with immigrants in the run up to and after Brexit.
“We made something very emotional and very visceral,” Ahmed was quoted as saying. “(Director) Aneil (Karia)’s technical ability is at work, but it’s just from a very raw place. I mean, for me at least, it felt like therapy. In terms of how it may or may not be received… I mean, it feels crazy to know that people are discussing this in the House of Commons in the UK Parliament or people calling me up from all around the world and commenting on it. It’s just a testament to Aneil’s talent.”
Ahmed is rare among movie stars to use his fame to draw attention to issues relating to Asian actors in the film industry, race, immigration and also the representation of minorities in cinema.
The Pillars Artist Fellowship, co-created by Pillars, Ahmed and Left Handed Films, is aimed at mentoring and funding Muslim directors and writers to change the narrative in cinema which overwhelmingly portrays Muslims in a negative light.
Research in September 2022 by Pillars found that although Muslims make up a quarter of the world’s population, they accounted for only 1.1 per cent of characters in popular television series. The survey looked at Muslim representation in 200 top-rated television shows from 2018 and 2019 aired in the UK, US Australia, and New Zealand. Most Muslim characters were shown in stereotypical parts, as criminals, not speaking English as a first language or perpetrators of violence.
Ahmed said, “TV shows are the stories we bring into our homes. They play a big part in shaping how we understand the world, each other, and our place within it. This study reminds us that when it comes to Muslim portrayals, we’re still being fed a TV diet of stereotyping and erasure.
“For Muslims this sends a message that they don’t belong or don’t matter.
“For other people, we risk normalising fear, bigotry and stigmatisation against Muslims. Networks and streaming services need to embrace their responsibility to ensure Muslims of all backgrounds see themselves reflected in our favourite TV shows.”
At the 2022 Academy Awards The Long Goodbye wasn’t the only film Ahmed was nominated for. The Danish animated film Flee – executive produced by Ahmed’s production company, London-based Left Handed Films, along with Suroosh Alvi of Vice Studios – became the first movie to be nominated for Best Documentary, International Feature, and Animated Feature in 2022.
Directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Flee told the real-life story of Amin (a gay Afghan refugee), via vividly animated renderings of both his past and future with a new husband.
“At Left Handed films, we are trying to explode genres. I think that’s our mandate and that’s what we wanted to do. We simply want to work with the boldest, freshest voices in the art,” Ahmed said at the time.
“Flee is a documentary and it’s also an animation and it’s a love story, whereas The Long Goodbye is social realism and horror musical and poetry piece. [What we’re] getting at is a kind of manifesto for mongrels like us, ’cause the boxes already set out, they’re too narrow for our experience,” he added.
Flee, however, did not win in any of the categories.
Ahmed’s Left Handed Films has co-produced Joyland, the first Pakistani feature film to be shortlisted for an Academy Award (and the first film by a Pakistani director to win at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival).
Joyland depicts a love story between a transgender dance-hall star and an unhappily married man in Lahore in Pakistan.
Ahmed said, “It’s a ground-breaking film and achieved all these firsts. But it’s really an emotional, crowd-pleasing movie.”
In 2021, Ahmed made history by becoming the first Muslim to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for The Sound of Metal. He played an American drummer whose life is turned upside down by the onset of deafness. However, he lost to British great, Anthony Hopkins.
In another drama, Mogul Mowgli, directed by Bassam Tariq and which was released in 2020, Ahmed played a British-Pakistani rapper struck down by a debilitating illness on the eve of his international breakthrough. Both the films are concerned with identity, which Ahmed wrestled in the The Long Goodbye.
"They all ask you from - Nah, where you really from," the trailer begins. "Everybody, everywhere want their country back - If you want me back to where I'm from then bruv, I need a map."
Ahmed grew up in the UK and spends his time between Britain and the US. He graduated from the University of Oxford in 2003 with a degree in philosophy, politics and economics.
He has a wide body of work in film, but it was his performance in HBO mini-series The Night Of, which put Ahmed on the world map and the cover of Time magazine.
His Left Handed Films has several upcoming projects. Besides, Joyland, Ahmed’s Left Handed Films and Lulu Wang’s Local Time have partnered to develop the comedy series The Son of Good Fortune at Amazon.
Ahmed will star filmmaker David MacKenzie’s next directorial venture titled Relay. The forthcoming project, which is touted to be a thriller, also features actress Lily James.
In 2020, Ahmed married American novelist Fatima Farheen Mirza, whose first novel, A Place for Us (2018) is a New York Times bestseller.
