Finding Fatimah (2017)

Interesting facts

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.

Production

Producer, Sol Harris, 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 picked it up for theatrical distribution in 2017.

Post-production sound was handled by Neil Hillman with most of the mix taking place at The Audio Suite in Birmingham, but some of it at Pinewood Studios.

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