Kal Sabir awarded new short film commission to make Kinaara (Edge)

Kal Sabir, is known as an actor and is now establishing himself as a new talent in Scottish screen.

Kinaara (Edge) tells the story of Adil, a carer to his elderly mother who has dementia. Sacrificing his own needs, he looks after her with little respite and spirals into despair.

Kal Sabir, writer and director of Kinaara (Edge) said

“I'm immensely grateful to the National Theatre of Scotland for commissioning my short film. There is no word for dementia in South Asian languages. Understanding of what it is and how it impacts a person, including their carers, is lacking.

Unpaid carers face monumental challenges, isolation and depression. In South Asian culture, family members are expected to quietly get on with it, to comply with the duty to look after their elderly parents and not abandon them.

Hopefully, my film will help raise awareness of dementia in South Asian communities and the plight of the unpaid carer”

Kal Sabir was originally awarded a National Theatre of Scotland Discover residency to research issues around carers and dementia within the South Asian community. He used this research in developing the ideas for this short.

Kinaara (Edge), with a bilingual script, will be shot in September 2024, in Glasgow, with casting to be announced, and will receive its official premiere in 2025.

Kal is most known as an actor, with roles in high profile films including Tehran and Gran Turismo, but recently through his fledging film production company, Restless Chimp, has developed a slate of works for film. Kal has previously written, directed and or produced short films, including ACo-incidental Engagement; official selection at the

Apex Film Awards, Unrestricted View Horror Film Festival, and the London Liftoff Film Festival, as part of New Voices, showcasing shorts from new filmmakers in the industry.

The short film will be executive produced by Uzma Mir, a leading Scottish Asian screen producer. With 30 years of experience working across radio and television as a director, producer and executive producer Uzma worked for BBC Scotland for the first 16 years of her career across a variety of genres from Features and Documentary to Education and Children’s.

Following an open call process, Kal Sabir was awarded the commission. The panel included screenwriter and director Raisah Ahmed alongside Uzma Mir and actor Susheel Kumar.

Angelina Nagenthiran has been brought on to the project in a co-producing role.

Developing Talent

This open call opportunity was part of the National Theatre of Scotland’s ongoing commitment to developing artists, creatives and technicians in Scotland and diversifying the creative talent pool of Scottish theatre-makers.

The Company has gratefully received three years funding from the John Ellerman Foundation which will support the role of Digital producer within the Company as well as the commissioning and producing of three short films to encourage cross-sector collaboration between the stage and screen industries.

Commitment to South Asian artists

In 2023 the Company issued a call out to South Asian theatre-makers to encourage them to apply for the opportunity to develop ideas for large-scale work for Scottish audiences. This followed on from the setting up of a South Asian advisory group; research into specific South Asian communities in Scotland and the publishing of the Company’s action plan in this area of development. The Company is currently progressing works from this call-out.