Zainab Rahim speaks to filmmaker Afi Khan, director / producer of new Channel 4 documentary series Keeping Up with the Khans.
With 17 years in the industry, Afi Khan is no newcomer to the world of film and television. As the associate producer of Four Lions (2010), he has seen his work unfold into a quotable cult classic. He has trodden the paths of both current affairs and drama in his time as a filmmaker – producing, directing, casting and offering consultancy on scripts.
Afi Khan’s new observational four-part documentary on Channel 4 highlights the impact of immigration on communities in Page Hall, Sheffield. Filmed over a period of 15 months, each episode of Keeping Up with the Khans features stories of people from different walks of life – those who have been affected by political shifts in their UK towns and their countries of origin.
Firstly, I have to ask, why did you call the documentary Keeping Up with the Khans when we haven’t met any Khans so far?
Well it’s funny you say this, because I was thinking the same! There are so many reasons why this could have happened and it may possibly be a compliance issue. But I agree, you should have met the Khans first. It’s a bit like opening a tin of beans and getting spaghetti hoops. Sorry…The best projects and films are the not-so-easy ones. And the documentary isn’t about my family – that’s just a coincidence!
The idea of immigration seems to induce constant panic in Britain, not least because of the recent refugee crisis. Could you have predicted that at the time of filming?
I guess not. This is a historic issue. It’s never a good time to talk about immigration – it’s always there and it’s going to be in season for a long time to come. As we know, the most recent refugee crisis has been the Syrian crisis – the biggest since World War Two.
It’s good to debate the issue, and you couldn’t do it in a better way than to create a documentary and allow your characters to discuss it themselves and bring it out into the open. Some humour and reality helps!
Why did you choose Sheffield’s Page Hall to tell this story?
It’s all about the latest arrivals and Sheffield, statistically, has one of the largest Roma populations in the UK. For us, it was like wow, this is going to be interesting. I know Sheffield well: I’ve studied there and I’ve made a lot of films and documentaries there. It’s a hugely diverse area, with so many social issues, but rich with culture, too. We were mixing and talking to the Pakistani community – who are possibly the oldest economic migrants in the area – the Yemenis, and then we had the white British, who had a lot to say about this (positive and negative), and of course the newest arrivals, the Roma Gypsies, which was fascinating.
id="attachment_11983" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11983" style="width: 370px" class="wp-caption aligncenter">
“I’m not racist but…” is a line we’re hearing a lot in Page Hall.
There’s tension in this area between communities. People are looking for someone to point the finger at. The Queen avoided Page Hall during her visit. It’s socially excluded with very poor housing and policing – and all those things contribute to resentment. Lynda told me that about a decade ago Page Hall was called “Sheffield in bloom” – people took pride, every house had a hanging basket, and streets were clean, despite being a mill town with terraced houses and a working class culture. But you can’t blame a community who’ve just moved in for the area’s deprivation – you have to go beyond that and ask what the council and government are doing. There’s a problem here, and everyone knows it. Who is to blame?
In the first episode, I loved Julie’s interactions with the landlord, Steve. Why do you think these two characters got along so well?
Julie found love, travelled to Gaza, married someone from the Middle East and lived a life there – but she is still a white British character who understands the culture and can connect with someone like Steve. She’s no different to anybody else other than she changed her faith, became a Muslim, and I think someone like Steve doesn’t see the difference. And that’s quite refreshing. Steve was a very crude character, and I think behind Julie there was a bit of crudeness anyway, and I think they just found common ground.
The limbo situation of asylum seekers like Haidar from Lebanon and Omar from Sudan seems infuriating. Did you observe holes in the system while documenting their stories?
Yes, I could see that. That was one of the most difficult episodes to make, because these characters were switching on and off, and they were so afraid of what the outcome would be, and whether the filming would somehow affect their appeal. It’s ongoing and scary. Forget about documentaries – this is about people’s lives and livelihoods.
Omar does not want to go back to Sudan. He crawled through the desert, he was on a small, vulnerable boat to get to Europe, and he was under a truck at one point. His life was at risk and he could have been another victim. So it’s not about people coming over here trying to rape the system and take benefits. You saw where they were living, it wasn’t nice, it was a cold and a grim place to stay, they were restricted in so many ways and not allowed to get a job – and it’s a shame it takes so long. That’s just the way it is.
In episode two, the people of Page Hall came together over… a snake on the loose! Not the big unifying shift I expected in working-class England.
That’s not what I expected either! For a start, I’m scared of snakes so it wasn’t easy to film. So I had to grow some balls. What we were dealing with there was three communities breaking down barriers, communicating, and coming together, and it kind of softened some of the characters. Like Lynda can be quite harsh. You might see her in one of the later episodes, very angry, very upset, because a lot of these people are trying to preserve their culture and it’s very hard if you’re white British – you feel slightly threatened.
Can you explain how the growing ‘Gypsy’ community got here?
So I travelled to Bystrany and Žehra in Slovakia to film that scene in episode two. These villages were squalid, pre-historic in some ways, but there was beauty there too. There’s a lot of racism in Slovakia, so if you’re a Roma Gypsy, you won’t get the same benefits as a white Slovakian. They have a very strong culture – there are good things and bad things about it. They don’t integrate as well and they don’t understand that.
We followed one of our characters from Slovakia to the UK, so I had to sit on a bus for 18 hours. It was horrible and smelly. But it was an amazing journey too – it’s a beautiful country. It opened my eyes and made me appreciate a lot of things. When you travel, observe how people live, and see where they come from, it all starts making sense. And I think that’s what we’re trying to do with the film. (By the way, I would definitely recommend Slovakia as a holiday destination!)
Why do you think Erik’s story was so pivotal to the second part of the documentary?
Erik is in his mid-twenties, a very larger-than-life character, who is also an orphan. He came to the UK about seven years ago and was taken under the wings of a Pakistani guy called Wahid who’s a bit like Mother Teresa. There’s a contrast between this very traditional Pakistani family and this Gypsy kid who doesn’t know where he came from, but loves this family so much. He bridges the gap. What you don’t see in the final cut was that he’s a proud Catholic, but he prays like a Muslim. At the same time, he’s very camp and melodramatic – he loves to sing Celine Dion and wear sparkly clothes – and there are a lot of interesting underlying issues around sexuality and gender here. A lot of people in Page Hall were not quite ready for this flamboyant character. He was really fun to film.
What can we look forward to in the final two episodes?
You’ll meet the Khans from Kashmir, you’ll go to Pakistan – I went over to Kashmir to film it – and you’ll witness some really interesting religious festivals in Page Hall. You’ll see how solid and influential the Pakistani Muslim community is in Sheffield. Their story looks flash to those like the Roma community, because they’re driving around in BMWs and Mercedes. But there’s good and bad in that community too. You’ll see what happens later this week.
You’ll also see some really heartrending stories in the white British community in the final episode and what the deprivation has done.
Do you think documentaries like this serve to break down stereotypes or provide indulgent entertainment?
They do both – and that’s why you have to pick the right documentary and project. TV is more for entertainment purposes these days, but I’m hoping this will be more informing and educating and not just entertaining.
Obviously I have to ask you about Four Lions. Could you have predicted its success?
Not really, it’s been a surreal experience! I started on Four Lions before the script was even written. It was actually meant to be a television series but it didn’t work out that way. When I did the research for the film and introduced the writer Chris Morris to some of the characters, I knew who they were and how they would evolve into these over-the-top characters. For instance, Brother Faisal and his crow was a friend of mine from Blackburn. He was obsessed with birds and he gave us a wild story – and Chris turned it into a great comedy moment. People’s reactions have been amazing, especially from the Muslim community in Britain and beyond. It’s going to live with us for a long, long time.
If you could remake Four Lions now, underpinned by the climate of counter-terrorism, what would you change?
I think it was spot on in terms of how things have unfolded. The more you know, the better it is. I don’t think you can make another film like Four Lions, but you can try something different. That’s also why I love making documentaries. Once you understand reality you can do anything with it.
Will you be involved in similar movies in future?
I’d like to start writing myself. What you see in Four Lions are people you see in everyday life, but with slightly larger characters. I’m constantly surrounded by them, from the fuckwits to the intelligent, to the extreme to the confused. I think there’s so much scope.
You can watch Keeping Up with the Khans on the 4oD website here: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/keeping-up-with-the-khans. The next episode airs on Thursday 18 February at 9pm and the final episode will be on Wednesday 24 February at 10pm.
Photo Credits: Afi Khan