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.”