The Halal Chop
Mark’s converting to Islam, it's the happiest he's ever been. There’s just one ‘small’ issue. A short comedy about finding God and losing some skin.
Fiction
Team
Sara Harrak, Director
Sara is a British-Moroccan director. Her short film, F**ked, aired live on Channel 4 in November 2023 and is now on 4OD until November 2024. This is as a result of F**ked winning Best British Short at the Iris Prize 2023 and also Best Short Film at Roze Filmdagen. F**ked screened at BAFTA and BIFA-qualifying festivals such as Leeds and had its international premiere at Flickerfest Film Festival in Sydney. F**ked is now being developed for TV with Wild Mercury. Sara was selected by M&Ms Film Festival to produce and direct a trailer in 72 hours, based on her original idea Solers United. Her completed trailer can currently be found on M&Ms website. She has also been longlisted for the 2024 Pillars Artist Fellowship. Sara has most recently been shortlisted for the BBC Comedy Collective Bursary. Sara has been in the industry for over 10 years previously working as an Assistant Director. Her credits include Alice in Wonderland for Disney, Grantchester, His House and Unforgotten. Whilst she is developing other projects, she also shoots music videos for production companies such as Grey Moth.
Emma Hammond, Producer
Emma is a freelance producer and script editor, balancing production work with her own slate of projects. She is the Producer of the short film F**ked, directed by Sara Harrak and written by Meg Salter. F**ked won the Iris Prize for Best British short, has screened at Aesthetica Festival, Leeds Festival, Flickerfest in Sydney and LFF in Ontario. F**ked is available to watch on 4OD until November 2024, and has recently been recognised by the British Film Council. Emma also wrote and produced a short entitled Labour, and is in post-production on a project entitled The Nurse and the Swan written and directed by Tiggy Bayley. Emma previously worked for Tiger Aspect, both with the drama development team across their slate and as a script editor on a 6-part TV HBO commission. From 2018-2021, Emma spent three years working with screenwriter Tony McNamara, as he developed and produced series 1 and 2 of The Great. Her credits to date include assistant to Rami Malek on Bohemian Rhapsody and The Amatuer, assistant to Amy Pascal on Spiderman: Far From Home, assistant to Alexander Skarsgard on The Little Drummer Girl and assistant director on Star Wars: A Solo Story.
Joel Samuels, Co-Writer
Joel is an actor, playwright and screenwriter who trained as an actor at LAMDA with a scholarship from the Leverhulme Trust. Joel's own serialised adaptation for television of his play Sugar Coat (Southwark Playhouse, 2023) is currently in pre-production and scheduled for release in 2025. Joel's short films include Table (2014), Highfield Timing (2016) and Squaddie (2021). Joel's extensive writing for theatre includes The Common Land (winner of the BBC Writersroom Award for Scripted Drama, 2014 and Pick of the Fringe at Brighton Fringe, 2014), Divas (winner of the Les Enfants Terribles Award 2015), Hilldrop (winner of the Masterclass Pitch Your Play Award, 2015), A Wake in Progress (winner of a Three Weeks Award, 2019), Sugar Coat (winner of an Off West End OffCom award, 2020) and an adaptation of Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby for the Hope Theatre (2021). Other awards and nominations include the Charlie Hartill Award 2015, Vault Festival Innovation Award 2019, Untapped Award 2020 and Vault Festival Show of the Week 2020.
Oz Arshad, Co-Writer
Born and raised in Halifax, West Yorks, Oz transitioned to filmmaking after a successful teaching career. He attended the National Film and Television School's Diverse Directors program, earning recognition for his work. He then joined Warner Media's Director Mentorship Program, spending 17 months fulltime on HBO's House of the Dragon Season 1 and is now still mentored by Miguel Sapochnik. Oz completed a short stint shadowing on ITVX‘s The Winter King with Otto Bathurst. He won a cash prize from the Centre Frame Short Film Fund for his new short Opening Up. Oz was also selected for the BBC Studios and Directors UK Continuing Drama Directors Workshop 22. Oz completed Screen Yorkshire’s FLEX talent lab 22/23 as a writer. In 2023 his drama script made the top 3% of BBC Writers Room for drama from 4287 scripts. Oz is part of BAFTA Connect and co-hosts a weekly podcast called The Director’s Take which has rapidly grown to a loyal strong weekly audience.