Bradford film student wins festival with lockdown documentary

University of Bradford film and TV production graduate Ahseem Yousuf says he has plans to make more documentaries after winning at a film festival.

Ahseem, who graduated last year, submitted his short film, Islam in Lockdown to the Lulea International Film Festival in Sweden - and he won Best Student Film.

He said: “It was a very nice surprise to win. The film was produced as part of my final year project. It looks at how the Muslim community dealt with covid. It shows how communities mitigated some of the restrictions and how they came together to deliver guidelines for mosques.

It also serves as a record of how Islam was affected by the pandemic, and hopefully people will be able to refer back to it in future. I also hope it challenges some of the stereotypes that existed at the time.”

Watch Islam in Lockdown on YouTube using this link.

Ahseem, who is pictured above on the set of The Duke, starring Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren, where he worked as a location marshall, added: “I learned a lot about film from the University. I believe the film department there is very underrated and it is made up of some of the most knowledgeable, hardworking and helpful professors I’ve ever met. I would highly recommend Bradford for any aspiring filmmakers as we have great facilities and a high percentage of alumni with jobs in the industry.”

Ahseem is currently working on a retro video game - available to watch on YouTube by clicking this link -  with his brother but says he has plans to make more documentaries in the near future.