Ahead of the film’s UK premiere at this year’s BFI London Film Festival, director Bassam Tariq sat down to chat with us about his debut narrative Mogul Mowgli – which stars Riz Ahmed as a rapper wrestling with his culture, heritage, and a severe illness.
Ahmed, who co-produced and co-wrote Mogul Mowgli with Tariq, stars as rising rapper Zed. He’s on the verge of superstardom in New York, preparing to support a big artist on an upcoming tour across the world. However, before setting off on that venture, he returns to London to reconnect with his family for the first time in two years. Although fate has other plans for the rapper who’s struck down by a severe illness and hospitalised in his hometown, threatening to derail not only his place on the tour but his entire musical career.
The film is a reflection of Tariq and Ahmed’s own experiences growing up in Western culture with Pakistani and Islamic heritage, as Zed grapples with his place in his community, but it’s also a story about making it as an artist. After his documentary These Birds Walk, Tariq briefly left filmmaking to open a butchery in New York – looking for a more financially viable career in order to support his family. It’s there he met Riz and the pair got to work on Mogul Mowgli. Tariq discussed what it was like to step back behind the camera and detailed his own experiences growing up as a Pakistani in the streets of Queens.
Check out the interview below.
Mogul Mowgli will be screening in the 64th BFI London Film Festival (including regionally and on BFI Player) on 10th & 13th October (tickets: www.bfi.org.uk/lff), and on general release in the UK and Ireland from 30th October
