The first Muslim International Film Festival kick-started today in London.
Actor-producer Sajid Varda, who launched the festival, said that it will “showcase stories we don’t usually see”.
Varda told BBC News that too often there is a “negative portrayal” of Muslims in the mainstream media, “so this festival is largely to reclaim the words Muslim and Islam”.
The festival will screen films from countries including the UK, Iran, Jordan, Morocco, Turkey, Tunisia and Sudan.
Taking place at the Odeon Luxe West End in Leicester Square, the festival’s programme includes eight feature films, two sets of short films, plus panels and networking opportunities.
It will open with the London premiere of Hounds, a crime film by Kamal Lazraq set in Casablanca.
A screening of In Camera, a feature by Naqqash Khalid, is also scheduled.
Dammi, a short film by French-Algerian director Yann Demange, is also a part of the line-up. It stars Riz Ahmed as a man who travels back to Paris to reconnect with his estranged father.
Filmmaker Warda Mohamed’s short film Muna is also screening at the festival.
Other programme highlights include the London premiere of Hesitation Wound, which won an award at the Zurich Film Festival.
There will also be a screening of the British Pakistani filmmaker Moin Hussain's offbeat sci-fi film, Sky Pearls, which tells the story of a directionless, alienated, and lonely man who works nightshifts in a fast-food restaurant.
Varda, who founded the charity UK Muslim Film to champion underrepresented talent and voices, hopes the festival will help reclaim Muslim artistic identity in a world where words and phrases such as “Islam” and “Allahu Akbar” are often demonised.
“The media loves to use Islam and Muslim as part of the headline, because again, it's just the way of stoking up fear, dividing communities, so this really is about how we reclaim our identity, which really has been taken away from us,” he told another publication.
The festival runs from 30 May to 2 June.
