MALAIKA
Topical Drama | 9m | 2021
Nominated as Best Drama at the Royal Television Society Awards 2022, this short film explores the harsh reality of racial discrimination preventing progress in careers and the prejudicial system that overcomes even the most strong-minded.
Malaika rehearses to land a lead role in the company’s upcoming showcase. With her hair deemed unprofessional, having to hand dye her wardrobe and shoes with her own foundation to match her skin tone, financial struggles, second jobs, and her mental health in tow, Malaika struggles to keep up with a company of ballerinas that she doesn’t feel truly part of.
It breaks her to the core and inevitably gets her to question how far she is going to push herself until she gets what she truly deserves: a chance like everybody else.
Although the story and characters are fictitious, the commentary is based on reality, and features struggles that ballerinas face today, it is based purely on research/interviews/experience.
Starring
Rachael Ridley, Fikayo Falade
Credits
Co-Writers: Josephine Kiaga & Alexine Puglisi
Director: Alexine Puglisi
Producer & 1st AD: Josephine Kiaga
Covid-19 Supervisor/ Floor Manager: Marte Gjesti
DoP: Jesper Bjørke
1st AC: Lucy Atkinson
Choreographer: Elisa Motti
Assistant Choreographer: Remotse Kgwadi
Production Designer: Rafael Redoble
Head of Sound: Evie Craik
Lighting Operator: Vittorio Miari
Editor: Oliver Stubbings
Special FX Makeup: Lucy Heyes
Art: Daniel Quaye Oblitey
Soundtrack by Mvnsa, Benjamin Doherty
