London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Lockdown one year on: film-maker Aki Omoshaybi on how Covid derailed his debut

Lockdown one year on: film-maker Aki Omoshaybi on how Covid derailed his debut

The British film-maker made his first feature, Real, for just £50,000 and was riding high on its festival premiere when the pandemic hit. He reflects on what might have been
October 2019. Aki Omoshaybi’s feature film Real, which he wrote, directed, produced and starred in, received its world premiere at the London film festival. It was a huge achievement for this ultra-low-budget picture, made for about £50,000, from an unknown talent who put the project together with negligible support from the UK film industry.

Omoshaybi recalls: “It was a really fantastic experience. If you’d have told me, a year before, the first screenplay I’ve ever written, or film I directed, produced, whatever, would have its premiere at the London film festival, I’d have told you where to go, because it was nothing the year before.” The warm audience reaction was a vindication for Omoshaybi, who had always felt that his film – the story of a budding romance between two people struggling not to get sucked into poverty – would be relatable and authentic. “I knew it was one for the people.” It also meant a lot to Omoshaybi to be a black British voice at the festival in a year in which the majority of black cinema programmed was from the US. “Which is fine. But I just felt like, it is a London film festival and it’s in the UK and you have to shine a light on all black stories.”

With the LFF as a launchpad, the film was set for a UK release by distribution company Verve as part of its innovative first feature support scheme. A bespoke release was planned, tailored towards building audiences for new, unknown talent. Special Q&A events were scheduled; the date, in April 2020, had been carefully chosen to avoid a clash with the arthouse heavy-hitters of awards season earlier in the year.

Then came the pandemic, and almost overnight that momentum evaporated. “I was really looking forward to it and so were the cast, because I guess it’s quite unheard of for a film to cost 50 grand and have it in those kinds of cinemas and to have that kind of release. We were all stoked for it. So when Covid happened, we had to think of another strategy. We were going for another time, June. Then we had to push it back again. Every time we regrouped, the release would get smaller and smaller and smaller. But I guess I’m still very lucky that we had a release.”

Real finally received a small theatrical and digital release in September 2020. It earned positive reviews, but audience resistance to the prospect of sitting in a cinema severely curtailed the film’s reach. It was particularly disappointing for Omoshaybi, who had hoped that in some small way the film would contribute to the conversation about what kind of black British stories are told. His aim was to show “something different, with two black protagonists just getting on with their lives, black people just being.”

Omoshaybi feels that there are biases at play, within the industry and in the audience, which shape the expectation of what constitutes a black British story. “If it’s not entrenched within what they deem as black culture, then they don’t think it has a life. Black people are all different. We’ve all had different upbringings, we all live differently. We’re not all under one cloak. And just as our white counterparts get all these different types of films, we should be able to have different types of films where it’s not just about being black.”

The raw, heartfelt film traces the growing romantic connection between struggling single mum Jamie (Pippa Bennett-Warner, best known for Gangs of London) and Kyle (Omoshaybi), whose life has not quite caught up with his big dreams. The story is set in Portsmouth, where Omoshaybi grew up. “I wanted to show a different landscape from London. I drove down there, knocked on doors, knocked on all the shops and just said: “I’m shooting a film, can you help me out?” And luckily they did.”

Film didn’t play a big role in the life of the young Omoshaybi, who didn’t actually go to a cinema until he was 17. “I was fostered in Portsmouth and I grew up with my foster nan. So in terms of [exposure to the arts], I guess it was more watching films with Howard Keel and Doris Day.” Football was Omoshaybi’s first love, and his route into acting. “A friend of mine said they were doing a football musical called Zigger Zagger at Southampton’s football ground with the Nuffield theatre and they needed some extras. And at that point I’d never been on a holiday, so going from Portsmouth to Southampton seemed like a holiday to me.” Omoshaybi auditioned as an extra, but was cast in the lead role.

Drama school followed, and some film work, including a small role in Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. But it was a small British indie titled Burning Men that prompted him to move

into writing and directing. “I thought, well if these guys can do it, why can’t I give it a shot? And soon as I finished that film, I used the money to shoot a short film.”

Even with the experience of making a short under his belt, the leap to a feature was a jolt for Omoshaybi, who had not originally planned to direct but found himself behind the camera when it became clear that the tiny budget and tight shooting schedule (the film was shot over just 12 days) precluded a more established name.

But it’s undeniable that the cruel timing of the pandemic derailed Real’s journey and reduced its impact within the industry. It’s a particularly dispiriting outcome, given the energy that Omoshaybi put into the film in the hope of shifting the balance of the UK’s cinema landscape. He is philosophical, however. “I often thought maybe it won’t work out, all this hard work that I’ve put in. But then I came to realise, the magic, the learning, the growth, was in the doing, and that’s what meant more to me.” He adds: “Let not the future worry your heart. Just be.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×