“I’m drilling at a South Asian diaspora within a British Asian setting, on a broad cinematic scale.” This is how Luis Hindman describes his upcoming feature projects, which include Beasts, a political thriller produced by SunnyMarch and written by actor Nikhil Parmar; and family saga Little Man, produced by Sorcha Bacon for Try Hard Film and co-written with Sufiyaan Salam, who co-wrote Hindman’s 2025 short Magid/Zafar. Both features are in development with Film4, with the BFI also on Little Man.
Magid/Zafar follows tensions in the heat of a UK Pakistani takeaway restaurant. It won the Bifa for best short, and was Bafta-nominated. “I wanted to treat young British Asian guys with the same depth as characters in a Xavier Dolan movie,” says Hindman, who also cites Wong Kar Wai and Claire Denis as influences, and sees “a clear umbilical connection” between the short and his feature projects. “I never saw British Asian cinema treated that way. These ideas of immigration, diaspora, colonialism are as huge as Shakespeare and the Greeks to me. They’re as emotionally complex as Ibsen or Chekov.”
The director began making short films for YouTube as a child with his brother and friends. “I could interact with an audience through comments,” he says. “It was a protected way to find yourself as a filmmaker. I always thought short films could be complete stories in and of themselves. You’re aware of how much noise there is, so how do I cut through it?”
With no film schooling, Hindman is glad to see the acknowledgement this year of YouTube’s training potential: “I’m happy to be included. I’ve felt part of this generation for a long time, but it’s never been seen as a cohort until recently.”
Directing music videos for artists including Scottish singer Joesef was “where I discovered my visual voice”, says Hindman. “It’s where I learned how much to shoot in a day, how much coverage to do. It informs how I manoeuvre my budgets now.” The reaction to Magid/Zafar “has encouraged me to go even more specific and unfiltered”, he adds. “I felt fired up by it, and I’m taking bigger risks.”
No comments yet