Muslim rom-com ‘Americanish’ awaits theatrical, video-on-demand release

The child of Egyptian immigrants growing up along Florida's coastal town of Panama City, Iman Zawahry used comedy as a natural antidote to the city’s racism.

To pass the time in their small, Southern community, she and her friends spent afternoons acting out skits. They kept up with pop culture. When all else failed, they turned on the TV.

“All you could do is watch movies and television,” she said. “So, that’s what we did.”

Surviving on a diet of ‘80s and ‘90s romantic comedies, Zawahry − now one of the nation’s first hijabi American-Muslim filmmakers − quickly realized that characters who looked like her rarely got the cheesy, empowering treatment of her favorite on-screen couples. Instead, films and television shows about Muslims were always about violence, leading to a nationwide fear of Muslim communities.

Today, Zawahry said, she sees this pattern slowly changing.

When members of younger generations think of Muslim stories on screen, she said, violence is no longer the first thing that comes to mind. They see Ramy Hassan and Mo Najjar, the titular characters of two TV shows following a first-generation American Muslim and Palestinian refugee, respectively. They see Hasan Minhaj, an Indian-American Muslim comedian known for his political satire.

And, soon, they’ll also see “Americanish,” Zawahry’s directorial debut − a romantic comedy following three Pakistani Muslim women in Jackson Heights, New York, as they navigate love, life and career.

Since debuting at film festivals in 2021, “Americanish” has racked up 26 awards and was acquired by Sony Pictures International Productions in January. The film will hit its next milestone Oct. 6 when it undergoes its theatrical release in select California and Arizona theaters, followed by a video-on-demand release Nov. 14.

More: UF lecturer's new American Muslim rom-com, 'Americanish' premieres

A self-proclaimed “film purist,” Zawahry has spent the better part of this year hoping to see her feature film on the silver screen. Harkins Theatres, a southwestern movie theater chain, took interest in “Americanish” after it won “Best U.S. Narrative Feature” at the 2022 Phoenix Film Festival and brought the dream to life.

“You work so hard for 10 years of your life on something, and then it’s, like, is anybody going to see it?” Zawahry said. “And now, the world has the opportunity to.”

About the movie

For Zawahry, “Americanish” was born almost a full decade ago, after seeing the one-woman play “Dirty Paki Lingerie” in Greenwich Village’s Cherry Lane Theatre on a birthday trip to New York City. There, she met Aizzah Fatima, an ads specialist turned filmmaker and the playwright behind “Dirty Paki Lingerie." She proposed adapting her script into a movie. In 2014, they started writing.

But for Fatima, the initial idea that would later become “Americanish” emerged even earlier − and entirely by accident.

Simultaneously working full time in tech and taking a solo show writing class with playwright Matt Hoverman, Fatima struggled to develop characters and a plot that weren’t overly personal, she said. Then, she found herself chatting with the woman seated next to her at a family wedding.

“That’s how it started,” she said. “I was, like, “Oh, this is a really interesting story, and she’s just sharing it with me.”

The conversation kicked off what eventually became around a dozen interviews with members of the Muslim community in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, building six characters who would later make up the main cast of “Dirty Paki Lingerie.”

Four of these characters carried over into the movie: sisters Maryam (Salena Qureshi) and Sam Khan (Aizzah Fatima), their newly-immigrated cousin Ameera (Shenaz Treasury) and the film’s matriarch, Khala (Lillete Dubey.)

While there are parts of Sam’s character Fatima doesn’t necessarily relate to, she said − being raised by a single mother − she resonates with Sam’s experiences trying to climb up a corporate ladder that doesn’t appear to be built for her.

Zawahry, too, sees herself and her family in most of the characters in the film, she said.

Like Sam, a social media strategist for a conservative politician, Zawahry possesses an independent spirit. And like Maryam, a driven senior with dreams of attending Harvard Medical School, Zawahry was also once an overzealous college student with strong ties to her Muslim identity.

As a sophomore studying religion and Near Eastern languages and cultures at the University of Florida, she started wearing a scarf. She was president of Islam on Campus during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. And by the end of college, Zawahry decided she’d be a scholar in Islamic studies before pivoting completely and applying to film school at Florida State University.

“I realized that [as a scholar in Islamic studies], I’m not going to be reaching the people that I want to reach,” she said. “I’m just going to be reaching people that want to be educated.”

Filmmaking, on the contrary, gave Zawahry the opportunity to control the narrative, she said — to work her way into people’s homes, shape their perceptions of the world and, most importantly, create empathy.

Comedy is Zawahry’s chosen method of education, she said.

Trying to forge forward as a comedy writer in independent film studios — a realm that often overvalues “trauma porn,” or media that exploits an individual’s trauma for entertainment — hasn’t always been easy, she said. But with comedy, Zawahry bridges the gap between people, creating the ideal scenario for them to learn from each other.

“Americanish” −  a film that drew inspiration from early 2000s classics “Bend it Like Beckham,” “Love Actually” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” − owns its status as a cheesy rom-com. Like the decades of female leads who came before them, all the film’s three main characters want is love, career and a family.

“I just wanted to see our people finding love on screen,” Zawahry said. “That was really, really important to me. And it’s three brown Muslim women doing that, and you haven’t seen that before.”

But the rom-com genre also provides an avenue to address themes of feminism, family, culture, women in the workplace and racism − topics American Muslim women live and deal with in unique ways, she said.

Muslim women are not a monolith, Zawahry said, and it’s this message she most hopes “Americanish'' audiences leave with. Creating a feeling of belonging among women is especially important, she said.

“I see you,” Zawahry said. “You're here. You're important. You're needed. You're loved. That's what I really want to do.”

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: UF graduate Iman Zawahry's 'Americanish' finally hits theaters