A new short film about a Pakistani family attempting to celebrate Eid in the US is in its early stages of production.
The live-action short has been described as a "low-budget subscription video on-demand programme". It will be distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and directed by young and relatively unknown filmmaker Aqsa Altaf.
Altaf was raised in Kuwait by a conservative Pakistani father and Sri Lankan mother, so it is a subject matter that is particularly close to her heart.
Altaf is currently seeking to fill five roles for the film, which will be set in Los Angeles. Acting experience is not required, but the ability to speak Urdu is "a plus", the casting information says.
The short will be centred around a 7-year-old girl called Ameena, who is "a girl with strong determination and a big heart".
Ameena has recently immigrated to the US from Pakistan, and upon learning that her favourite holiday, Eid, is not recognised as a national holiday, she circulates a petition in the hopes that she and her sister can take the day off school.
Ameena's sister Zara is 13 years old and is determined to fit in at her new school in the US and to not draw attention to herself.
"She wants to be called Z, practices speaking with an American accent and wears clothes that show her legs," the casting information says.
Their father, Altaf, has to start from scratch to provide for his daughters in the US, and their mother, Jamila, is strict, and works full-time, while also taking evening classes to provide for the family.
The final role that needs filmed is that of a 70-year-old grandmother who remains in Pakistan.
While the director wouldn't be drawn on the finer details of the short, it's hard not to see potential parallels to her own life. The character of the father in the film has her last name, and Altaf moved to the US herself in search of a better life.
While she tells The National she can't release many details about the project just yet, she is "super excited about making a film about Eid".
Further details about the project are expected to be announced by Disney later this year.
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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