The World Premiere of Polarized from the critically acclaimed British film director Shamim Sarif will take place at BFI Flare on London’s South Bank on Saturday 18th March followed by a second screening on Sunday 19th March.
Shamim Sarif’s visually arresting fifth film Polarized is a tale of queer love in a small town that unfolds against a backdrop of sweeping Canadian prairies. Wild Rose meets Brokeback Mountain, this slow-burn tale follows a struggling singer/songwriter from a poor farming community coming to terms with her queer identity and the barriers thrown up by family, religion, race and community.
Portraying a culture clash between bible belt White Canada and progressive Muslim Palestinians, Polarized offers a groundbreaking portrayal of contemporary Palestinians beyond the shoebox of conflict. Sarif uses the film to explore the conflict between the American Dream and the division sown by Trump and Brexit against a heady soundtrack of Arabic rap and American country.
The film’s Palestinian producer, Hanan Kattan, says: “Polarized reminds me of Lee Isaac Chung’s film Minari, in the way it shows a rarely seen side of the immigrant experience. It’s one of the few times in cinema that we see Palestinian immigrants onscreen who are successful, driving scientific innovation, and in the case of Dalia, also queer.”
One of the UK’s leading independent filmmakers, Shamim Sarif’s four previous films include Despite the Falling Snow (Rebecca Ferguson, Charles Dance) and have notched up a total of 47 awards. Her series directing credits include the new Season 4 of YOU staring Penn Badgley for Netflix/Warner, as well as series for Paramount Plus, eOne and HBO Max.
Shamim Sarif’s nuanced film explores the polarized world we currently live in; how it can take an act of bravery to step outside our familiar ways of thinking, and to choose inclusion over exclusion. The film unfolds beautifully as it contrasts two lives lived in the same town, but vastly different worlds.
POLARIZED A FILM BY SHAMIM SARIF
Queer love happens in the most unexpected places
As an unavoidable attraction develops between two women in a small conservative farming community, they must navigate the barriers of race, religion and class that keep them apart.
In a fading small town deep in the Canadian prairie, singer/songwriter Lisa goes to work at a ‘vertical farm’ – the kind of new science that has pushed traditional farms, including her cherished family farm, out of business. Lisa’s boss Dalia is part of the successful Muslim Palestinian family that own this new ‘agri-tech’ farm, and they struggle to find a welcoming place in the local community.
Weeks before Dalia’s wedding to her childhood friend, a heated encounter between the two women at work exposes racism from Lisa; in response, Dalia fires her. That could have been the end of their story – but instead, it ignites an unexpected connection.
As friendship and attraction grows between the pair, they will have to question the unspoken rules that keep them apart, or risk settling for the lives their families have laid out for them.
Screenings will take place at 8.40pm on Saturday 19th March and 3pm on Sunday 19th March at the BFI on London’s South Bank. Ticket information here.
Shamim’s experience
The political backdrop of Polarized is contemporary North America but, to me, it feels relevant all over the world. At its heart, it is a love story between two people who appear wrong for each other in every way – as defined in a cultural moment when neither side much cares to know the other. Separated by race, religion and economics, Polarized is also about two families – and it is the ties of blood that both Lisa and Dalia must learn to loosen if they are to find their true selves, alone or together.
I wanted to explore what it might take for two young women, one evangelical Christian, one Palestinian Muslim, both ingrained with certain beliefs about the ‘other’, to step outside the unspoken barriers between them to fall in love. It’s an emotional journey I experienced myself when I fell in love with another woman, someone who was ‘wrong’ from all the traditional perspectives.
Back then, twenty-seven years ago, it was the jolt of love that opened me up to seeing the world in new ways and it’s the same for Lisa and Dalia – at a moment when those around them are keener than ever to hold onto what they believe.
The setting and soundtrack
Endless prairie landscapes, big skies and small towns are the visual palette of the film. It’s a world where everyone knows everyone, and where keeping to your side of town becomes a statement. Set in the countryside around Winnipeg, the rhythmic shots of farming machinery and endless crop fields also remind us of what Lisa has lost and the division between the two women that must be overcome. In small town communities, small interactions can mean a lot. When Lisa takes Dalia to see the farm where she grew up, it’s a way of her opening her inner life to Dalia in a way she doesn’t do with others.
Music plays a huge role in the film with a vibrant contrast between country music representing the world that Lisa comes from and Arabic rap representing the world of Dalia and her Muslim family. Shamim asked Canadian singer songwriter Brook Palsson to write the songs that Lisa sings in the film. In addition, licensed songs include tracks from exceptional country-influenced artists like Rosanne Cash, Ashley Monroe and Hindi Zahra – tracks which play at the town festival, in Lisa’s truck, and at Millie’s Café in town. While on the other side of the street, at Palestinian Kitchen, Arabic rap plays from Palestinian artists like Abe Batshon and DAM, together with haunting melodies from Natacha Atlas, Terez Sliman and Haya Zaatry.
About Shamim Sarif
Writer and director Shamim Sarif is an award-winning novelist, screenwriter, feature film director, and director for premium series, including the new fourth season of YOU for Netflix/Warner.
Shamim’s latest feature film as a writer/director, Polarized, has just completed and made its debut at Berlin’s EFM in Feb 2023 and will premier at BFI Flare in March 2023.
Her previous features as writer/director include Despite the Falling Snow, starring Rebecca Ferguson and Charles Dance. The film garnered 13 awards. Her first feature film as writer/director, I Can’t Think Straight debuted at Palm Springs Film Festival and won 11 awards. Her follow up movie ‘The World Unseen’ debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival before garnering 23 awards internationally.
Her latest books, The Athena Protocoland The Shadow Mission, (HarperCollins) are being developed as a series with Village Roadshow and Gran Via Productions (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul), with Shamim writing the pilot.
Shamim is of South Asian descent and identifies as LGBTQIA+. Her work has always focused on diversity, feminism, social impact and humanism. As well as YOU, her other series directing credits include SkyMed (Paramount Plus), Moonshine (eOne) and Diggstown (CBC/Fox). An accomplished speaker, Shamim has spoken at TED events worldwide, at the INK Conference in India and DLD in Munich. Corporate speaking events have included Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, Citibank and Disney.
Shamim was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Oscars) in 2019. She is also a member of BAFTA, the Writers Guilds of America and Canada, the Director’s Guild of Canada and the Canadian Media Producers Association. She lives in Toronto and London.
Read more here about Shamim illustrious career.
You may also enjoy reading more about Shamim’s passion about the LGBT+ community
