BFI #LFF : Talking to Aki Omoshaybi whose film “Real” is in “Love Strand”

A first time director sees actor turned director Aki Omoshaybi’s earnest debut REAL explores the love between two people who work hard to keep their romance on track while struggling to manage personal hardship. Set in London the film stars Pippa Bennett-Warner (Jamie) and Omoshaybi (Kyle). Alt spoke to Omoshaybi.

He said. “The premise of REAL is about a blossoming relationship. I suppose when you first start dating, a naturalistic authentic touching story about two people trying to navigate their way through a relationship from a working class background as well. I wanted to tell a love story from you know, you see films., love stories, upper class protagonists. I wanted it to be a working class love story with the lead protagonist both being black race is not even an issue, just two people trying to forge their way forward in a relationship”. Watch the full interview with Aki Omoshaybi here.

The Festival programme is organised in sections to encourage discovery and to open up the Festival to new audiences. The strands are: Love, Debate, Laugh, Dare, Thrill, Cult, Journey, Create, Experimenta, Family and Treasures. Here is a selection from some of the other films across the strands.

DEBATE

A HIDDEN LIFE, a Second World War-set true story that calls for grace as it explores the importance of unsung resistance. Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer, Tim Roth and Kevin Harrison Jr. lead the cast in Julius Onah’s LUCE, a gripping psychological thriller about subjectivity and code-switching in modern America. THE REPORT by Scott Z Burns, starring Adam Driver, Annette Bening and Jon Hamm, is a politically urgent drama in which the American government take a hard look at itself.

CREATE
Stanley Nelson’s MILES DAVIS: BIRTH OF THE COOL sees 20th century music’s trumpet-playing prince of darkness receive the candid documentary his controversial genius deserves.

DARE

Burning Cane is the winner of the top prize at the Tribeca Film Festival, heralding 19-year-old director Phillip Youmans as a serious new talent.

Helen stalks through her farm with a cleaver in one hand, cigarette in the other, running through the various treatments she’s tried for her dog’s mange. Her recently unemployed son Daniel pushes beer and whiskey on his own child. And the local preacher (Wendell Pierce) remains in denial about the malice forming an increasingly powerful undertow to his sermons. As alcohol and melancholy suffuse this Louisiana family and their pastor, a woozy portrait emerges – one of characters living in lows they cannot transcend.