Azaar (2019) (2/2) Continued from previous post... The cast were brilliant and we were particularly lucky to find Aashima, who hadn’t really acted before but was a complete natural and did such a good job of learning her Urdu lines. Myriam had worked with Kiran before and I had worked with Reece so it was great to reconnect with them too. We couldn’t afford to rent all of the EQ out in Spain, so my 2 production crew and I spent two days driving a van with the school’s EQ to Malaga. One of the trickier aspects was casting villagers. We ended up hiring the family members of most of our Spanish crew and an entire family from the one Indian restaurant for miles! The delicious catering was supplied by a small cafe nearby. When I first visited them to make a deal, I assumed they were new to all of this and it might be a little overwhelming for a tiny establishment in a sleepy village. The patrons said it would be no problem and turned my attention to the pictures on the wall behind them - pictures of the cast of Game of Thrones enjoying their paella and gazpacho! Turns out the whole area has a mega rich history of film and the locals have been working with Hollywood for years, including classics like Sergio Leone’s “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” which was shot down the road. We all stayed together in a massive villa which worked out super cheap, eating breakfast and dinner together, which seems even more special in recent times. Nominated Best British Short Film - BAFTA (2020) Nominated Best British Short - London Short Film Festival (2020) Winner of Royal Television Society Award for Cinematography Nominated Best Short - River to River Indian Film Festival (2019) Student Panorama - Camerimage Film Festival (2019) International Competition - Encounters Film Festival (2019) Shortlisted - BAFTA Student Awards (2019)