INTERVIEWS

Stories People Weren’t Telling: A Stray

share:

In A Stray, Somali refugee Adan – played by Captain Phillips’s Barkhad Abdirahman – finds himself homeless, and living in a neighborhood mosque. Working as a delivery van driver, Adan accidentally hits a stray dog, and though it isn’t harmed, he accepts responsibility for it, an act which brings him into conflict with those at the mosque who consider it unclean.

Through his film, writer and director Musa Syeed explores the nature of faith, friendship and acceptance. Creative Screenwriting spoke with him about symbolism, media portrayal of Islam, and getting feedback on your script from its subjects.

Barkhad Abdirahman as Adan and Ayla the dog in A Stray. Credit: IFP Screen Forward

Barkhad Abdirahman as Adan and Ayla the dog in A Stray. Credit: IFP Screen Forward

Can you share a little about your background, and what led you into filmmaking?

Musa Syeed

Musa Syeed

I grew up watching films, but none of these films had protagonists that looked like me. Or, if they were like me, they were the bad guys. That really informed me about the power of storytelling and the power of image.

I loved movies, and I wanted to engage within the filmmaking craft from a young age. I would make home movies with my friends, but there were bigger representations that made me think I could make a career out of it, and that made me want to pursue it further.

Do you consider yourself more of a writer or a director?

There are things that I write that I wouldn’t direct, and I do enjoy writing. That’s what I was first drawn to—fiction writing and prose. Film came later, and when I went to NYU film school, I got drawn into documentary. That writing was more narrative than fiction film.

I love to push myself out of my comfort zone, to meet new people and go to new places. With both this film and my previous film, I’ve been trying to balance those issues while trying to write a clear and concise storyline. Either way, I still want that spontaneity within the film.

Where did the original idea for A Stray come from?

Part of the inspiration came when my wife took in a stray dog off the street. She nursed it back to health and we had it for a few weeks. I grew up in a Muslim household where dogs somewhat signified privilege or Colonialism. I was a little uneasy, but by the time we moved and had to give it up, I realized how much of a relationship I had developed with the dog.

I also wanted to portray the idea of loving something that you can’t touch.

Christina Baldwin and Barkhad Abdirahman as Adan in A Stray. Credit: IFP Screen Forward

Christina Baldwin and Barkhad Abdirahman as Adan in A Stray. Credit: IFP Screen Forward

This is certainly a story of acceptance. How much of this comes from personal experiences and what outside research was involved?

I always felt like an outsider. I grew up in Indiana, in a small town. My parents were from Kashmir and I really stuck out when compared to my classmates.

When I got a little older, I made my first film in Kashmir, where my parents were from. But even though I looked like everyone, I couldn’t really connect. With “third culture kids,” as we might be called, there is a sense that we don’t fit in anywhere.

But there are ways to draw on different worlds, even though you can’t feel at home in any of them. And with the Somali community there are similarities to this, though I had to conduct research to understand the differences. There are also a lot of cultural nuances in Minneapolis that are different for those from New York.

Your film showcases a less recognizable side of Minneapolis. How did you decide where to set these scenes?

I tried to observe the city as I thought the character might. There are well-known places that are popular, but I wanted the local spots that are under the radar and less apparent.

I wasn’t checking any tourist’s maps or manuals of what sites to see. I tried to find locations off the beaten path. Adan needed to find places where outsiders would go, such as the Native American community. We worked with the American Indian center in Minneapolis to find that location.

We looked for people who had been pushed out of the norm.

Barkhad Abdirahman as Adan and Ayla the dog in A Stray. Credit: IFP Screen Forward

Barkhad Abdirahman as Adan and Ayla the dog in A Stray. Credit: IFP Screen Forward

What shaped the character for the meddlesome FBI agent?

There is a lot of tension with law enforcement within the Muslim community, particularly with recent invasive tactics to gather intelligence. The use of paid informants, particularly young men, who are asked to report on their friends, for example.

In the film, he’s not a very good informant, but that’s often the case. The FBI may make a case based on a young man who is developmentally-disabled or have some other type of disability. They target individuals who are somewhat incompetent. Agents may be so desperate to make cases that they pursue unlikely targets.

How important is the symbolism, such as that between Adan and the story of the Prophet we hear towards the end of the film?

I had to decide whether to include that kind of resolution. I wondered if it was too moralistic, but that’s the way that Adan was.

With all of the untruths and misinformation about Islam, it’s rare that we get to hear the actual practice or beliefs in this kind of way. It felt really authentic and realistic to the community, in addition to illustrating how people really live their faith rather than media sound bites.

There were also tensions with the dog—this unclean thing—and how Adan could love it. This could be how people view Muslims or other minorities, and the distance created there. There is a power to this relationship in the film, and how things can bridge that gap.

During your research, did you get any feedback from the Somali community?

Understandably, there were a lot of questions from the community about what I was shooting. The media tends to focus on the exceptions rather than the everyday quality of life. Those forces put pressure on people who are just trying to live their lives.

I sent the script out so I could get more feedback from the community. Locally, people just want to feel a sense of ownership. They wanted to be engaged in the process. I sent the script to activists, youth leaders, and Imans.

People had very strong opinions on different things. It didn’t’ change the overall storyline, but it did make the film feel more authentic. A lot had to change during the script changes, but also later in production. Some things even changed on set, right before the camera came on.

We had to really find the film as we went along. Because the initial story was there, we were able to roll with the punches.

Barkhad Abdirahman as Adan and Ayla the dog in A Stray. Credit: IFP Screen Forward

Barkhad Abdirahman as Adan and Ayla the dog in A Stray. Credit: IFP Screen Forward

Do you have any examples of this?

There is a scene where Adan is trying to sell the dog to white college students. We had shot a different scene at a bus stop and some walking shots, when we saw these students coming up to him, and it really just made sense within the scene.

It also allowed us to highlight another part of his character. He acts differently with young white people than he does with Native Americans or with other Somalians. He is kind of performing and trying to be funny and trying to “hustle.”

How long did the actual writing process take?

I went to Minneapolis for the first time for this project in January 2015. That was just to do some initial research. And I went back every few months.

I think I first shared a script in March or April of that year. It was fairly quick from research to writing the first draft, but the the revisions with the community happened after that. I shared more with screenwriting friends and industry people first to make sure the story was on track, and then I sent it off to the community to get their input. A lot changed but I had a decent foundation before that.

It was pretty intense, because I was living it as I was doing it.

What advice would you pass on to upcoming filmmakers—specifically those trying to make films about minority groups?

For me, what took a long time was to realize that I had access to special people and places, and thereby access to new stories that people weren’t telling.

There are so few people like me in the industry. It took me a while to find my validation and learn how to write these stories. I had to ask myself if my ideas were marketable or not.

So I encourage people to write about their background. All of these things make up your unique voice and every person is different, so that sense of authorship or voice should be expressed. That will help you stand out more than trying to have the biggest budget or having the biggest actor in your film.

People want to discover the world and we can only do so with a more diverse industry and more diverse network of filmmakers.

Featured image: Barkhad Abdirahman as Adan and Ayla the dog in A Stray. Credit: IFP Screen Forward.

[addtoany]

share:

image
Brock Swinson

Contributing Writer

Freelance writer and author Brock Swinson hosts the podcast and YouTube series, Creative Principles, which features audio interviews from screenwriters, actors, and directors. Swinson has curated the combined advice from 200+ interviews for his debut non-fiction book 'Ink by the Barrel' which provides advice for those seeking a career as a prolific writer.

Improve Your Craft