''Finding Fatimah'' is a British
romantic comedy
Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...
written and directed by Oz Arshad.
The film is about a man who struggles to find love in the
British Asian community due to the stigma of his divorce several years prior.
The majority of ''Finding Fatimah'' was filmed in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
with additional sequences filmed in
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...
and London. It was released in UK cinemas on 21 April 2017
with a 12A certificate granted by the
BBFC
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of f ...
.
The film was produced on a budget of £325,000.
Cast
* Danny Ashok as Shahid
*
Asmara Gabrielle
''Finding Fatimah'' is a British romantic comedy written and directed by Oz Arshad. The film is about a man who struggles to find love in the British Asian community due to the stigma of his divorce several years prior.
The majority of ''Findi ...
as Fatimah
*
Nina Wadia
Nina Wadia (born 18 December 1968) is a British actress and comedian. She is known for portraying Zainab Masood in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', Aunty Noor in Citizen Khan Mrs Hussein in the BBC comedy ''Still Open All Hours'', and for st ...
as Khadija
* Wahab Sheikh as Nav
*
Mandeep Dhillon
Mandeep Dhillon (born 21 December 1990) is a British actress who has appeared in stage, television, film and radio productions, including the BBC Three comedy series ''Some Girls'' and '' Fried''. She featured in the British romantic comedy '' ...
as Nayna
* Ambreen Razia as Hafsah
*
Shobna Gulati
Shobna Gulati (born 7 August 1966)[www.shobnagulati.co.uk](_blank)
Shobna Gulati official website is an English ...
as Saba
* Arif Javid as Tawheed
*
Abdullah Afzal
Abdullah Afzal ( ur, عبداللہ افضل; born 1989) is a British actor and stand-up comedian.
Early life
Afzal is of British-Pakistani descent from Cheetham Hill, Manchester, England. He has three older brothers, two older sisters and a ...
as Jahid
*
Ewen MacIntosh
Ewen Douglas MacIntosh (born 25 December 1973) is a British actor and comedian known for his role as Keith Bishop in ''The Office'' (2001–2003).
Early life
MacIntosh was born in Merionethshire. He was educated at Repton School in Derbyshire, ...
as Lionel
*
Dave Spikey
Dave Spikey (born David Gordon Bramwell, 6 October 1951) is an English comedian, actor, writer and film producer. He is best known for his stand-up comedy, writing and starring in the British comedy programme ''Phoenix Nights'', presenting ''B ...
as Mr Gruff
*
Guz Khan
Ghulam Dustgir "Guz" Khan (born 1986) is a British comedian, impressionist, and actor best known for his work in the TV show '' Man Like Mobeen'' and stand up appearances in '' Live at the Apollo''.
Early life
Guz has two sisters who are ten ...
as Rocky
* Theresa Godly as Aaliyah
*
Denise Welch
Jacqueline Denise Welch (born 22 May 1958) is an English actress, television personality, writer and broadcaster. Her roles include Natalie Barnes in ''Coronation Street'' (1997–2000), Steph Haydock in '' Waterloo Road'' (2006–2010), and ...
as Valerie
*
Imran Yusuf as Sid
* Alessandra D'Averio as Adela
* Sajid Varda as Arif
* Tim Dalgleish as Yameen
* Zoe Iqbal as Fiza
Production
Producer,
Sol Harris
Sol Harris is a producer, director, writer and podcaster. He is host of the film podcast "Diminishing Returns".
Writing
Harris worked with director, Oz Arshad, to develop the story and create the characters featured in ''Finding Fatimah'' before ...
, and director, Oz Arshad were freelancing for British Muslim TV and pitched the idea of producing a movie with the intent of it being toured as a means of charity fundraising for Penny Appeal. A story idea was presented and it was agreed that the studio would have final cut to restrict story, scenes or shots along the way if they felt it would not satisfy both a conservative and liberal Muslim audience.
Pre-production began in February 2016. Harris and Arshad worked together to create the characters that were then written into the screenplay.
Principal photography took place in small installments between July 2016 and October 2016 with additional pick-up days in December 2016 and January 2017.
In spite of the restrictions placed on the film, Arshad and Harris wanted to make the film as accessible as possible to a mainstream audience. Speaking to CloseShave TV, Arshad said "The universal theme of this movie is finding love and these two characters just happen to be Muslim". Due to this mainstream approach, the film surpassed its initial releases plans and
Icon
An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most ...
picked it up for theatrical distribution in 2017.
Post-production sound was handled by
Neil Hillman
Dr Neil Hillman (born 31 January 1960, Sutton Coldfield, England) is a British television and feature film sound designer and editor, notable for his work on the Oscar-winning film ''Lincoln'', '' New York I Love You'' and '' Grace of Monaco''. ...
with most of the mix taking place at The Audio Suite in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
, but some of it at
Pinewood Studios
Pinewood Studios is a British film and television studio located in the village of Iver Heath, England. It is approximately west of central London.
The studio has been the base for many productions over the years from large-scale films to te ...
.
Penny Appeal toured the film, screening it a total of 23 times in 19 different cities. The tour was a huge success, with over 10,000 tickets being sold across the tour and the
Leicester Square
Leicester Square ( ) is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leicester House, itself named after Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester ...
event, alone, raising over £100,000 for charity. Penny Appeal founder Adeem Younis confirmed in his 2021 book 'Small Change Big Difference: The Penny Appeal Story' that the Finding Fatimah tour raised over £600,000.
Soundtrack
The film's score was written and recorded by composer James Hesford.
The soundtrack features "
The First Cut Is the Deepest
"The First Cut Is the Deepest" is a 1967 song written by British singer-songwriter Cat Stevens, originally released by P. P. Arnold in May 1967. Stevens's own version originally appeared on his album ''New Masters'' in December 1967.
The song ...
" by
Cat Stevens
Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou; ), commonly known by his stage names Cat Stevens, Yusuf, and Yusuf / Cat Stevens, is a British singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His musical style consists of folk, pop, rock, and, later in ...
. Stevens granted the production the rights to use the song for free due to liking the rough cut of the film he was shown.
"Life is a Love-Story" is performed by
Scor-Zay-Zee, who makes a cameo in the film.
Reception
The film received mixed reviews from mainstream publications. On review aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 13% based on 8 reviews, with an average rating of 4.12/10.
In the mainstream media, one consistent point was the film's high production values given its budget of just £325,000.
The Evening Standard
The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format.
In October 2009, after be ...
gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, praising its use of a "staggeringly low budget". The sentiment was repeated by
MaryAnn Johanson
Mary Ann or Maryann or Mary Anne may refer to:
People
* Mary Ann Booth (1843–1922), American microscopist
* Mary Ann Cunningham (1841-1930), Canadian temperance activist
* Mary Ann Hanmer Dodd (1813-1878), American poet
* Mary Ann Hilliard (18 ...
, writing for Flick Filosopher, who said "Arshad makes his ridiculously low-budget film look far more expensive: I would never have guessed that Finding Fatimah was made for under half a million pounds. That’s just nuts". Overall, she said "There’s lots to like in this mostly sweet British Muslim rom-com. Pity, then, that it tries too hard, instead of trusting its characters, and sabotages itself", awarding the film 2.5 stars out of 5.
Total Film
''Total Film'' is a British film magazine published 13 times a year (published monthly and a summer issue is added every year since issue 91, 2004, which is published between July and August issue) by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched i ...
gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, praising the chemistry between the leads and comparing the writing to vintage
Richard Curtis
Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis (born 8 November 1956) is a New Zealand-born British screenwriter, producer and film director. One of Britain's most successful comedy screenwriters, he is known primarily for romantic comedy films, among them '' ...
.
ShortList
A short list or shortlist is a list of candidates for a job, prize, award, political position, etc., that has been reduced from a longer list of candidates (sometimes via intermediate lists known as "long lists"). The length of short lists varie ...
gave the film a positive review, with their takeaway being that it "Refreshingly explores a romantic red line that isn't farcially extreme, but instead an unspoken barrier to love for so many".
The National Student
''The National Student'' was a national print and online magazine for higher education students in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a co ...
gave the film 4 out of 5, praising what it achieves on such a small budget and claiming that "it hangs together seamlessly in terms of production value; it's well edited and thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish" and calling Oz Arshad's debut as director "a triumph".
Ahead of its release,
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
praised the film for "putting authentic British Asian characters centre-screen" and poised that it might "help end Muslim stereotypes in film". However, once the film was released, film critic
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire''.
Early life and education
Bradshaw was educated at Haberdashers ...
slated the film for a "bafflingly lame and leaden script and plodding direction that wouldn't pass muster for TV in a thousand years", awarding it 1 star out of 5.
The film was almost universally acclaimed by Asian press, with Asiana.TV giving the film a positive review, stating "As independent British films go, Finding Fatimah is unlike others in recent years and it's this originality that will cement its place in modern cinema".
Asian Image gave the film a positive review, praising the lack of stereotypes and cliches and calling it "a well-executed and refreshingly honest take on life as a single British Muslim".
The Platform gave the film a positive review, stating "The tasteful comedy, with genuine characters and an amalgamation of Asian culture with abject Britishness, makes Finding Fatimah a pleasure – but more importantly, a welcome breath of fresh air. It is a film that should have been made a decade ago, and is a welcome release to the tension the media have contributed to propagating about Muslims".
DESIblitz gave the film a positive review, praising its originality and "fresh perspective".
References
External links
*
* {{rotten-tomatoes, finding_fatimah
2017 films
British independent films
British romantic comedy films
2017 directorial debut films
Icon Productions films
2010s English-language films
2010s British films