OSCAR nominated short film Stranger at the Gate | My Soho Times

With this year’s Academy Awards coming up fast on our heels, the hotels of Soho big or boutique boasting a cinema space are doing brisk business at the moment. Turn up at 6.30pm or so in the evening and you will find  the lobbies and foyers awash with curious cinephiles catching the latest previews.

One such is the neon delight, W London, handily positioned just off Leicester Square, for the pre-screening of documentary short, ‘Stranger at the Gate’ with special guest Malala in attendance. “This film is a powerful true story of forgiveness and redemption,” Malala, Executive Producer of the film, says. “I hope the film challenges every viewer to question their assumptions and show kindness to everyone they meet.” Our entertainment reviewer Rukayat Moibi shares more.

The Oscar nominated feature, already a prizewinner at last year’s Tribeca Festival, tells the dramatic and timely story of a planned hate crime when former U.S. Marine, Richard (Mac) McKinney, hatches a plot to bomb a mosque in Indiana. But this would-be traumatic tale has a happy ending. Within weeks of his initial fact-finding trip, instead of going through with an appalling act of violence, McKinney converts to Islam.

“At a moment when division and hate are too common, ‘Stranger at the Gate’ shines a light on our shared humanity and delivers a message of hope,’ the film’s director, Joshua Seftel, says.

There comes a moment in this film that its topic just feels extraordinary beyond words. It could be the first five minutes when we’re introduced to Richard ‘Mac’ McKinney’s daughter explaining that she never really imagined that she could exist in the same house as a mass murderer. Or, it could be the final scenes, an ode to community and what it means to truly offer kindness in the face of fascism.  

In an interview, Mac recalls his journey in returning from war – damaged, traumatised and living with PTSD. Alas, this is something  we know via news reporting and it affects two out of three soldiers who served. As he takes us through  the horrors he witnessed in combat, he details the stages he went through learning to distrust Muslims, to experiencing hatred  and seeing them as the enemy, and we start to get a picture of Mac’s state of mind. 

Returning home to Muncie, Indiana, he’s confronted with the day-to-day reality of seeing those he “considered an enemy every time I went out the door’. His ex-wife remembers trips to Walmart where walking down the aisle and seeing a woman in hijab, she would divert and take another path to avoid triggering Mac. 

Recalling the shock of hearing his daughter’s innocent story of seeing a Niqab-wearing mother collecting her son from school, his traumatised mind draws only one conclusion: that she and other Muslims in his hometown (and the US) are terrorists and here to plan an attack. Fearing for his family’s safety, he decides that he’ll have to act first. Knowing that he’ll have to explain the cause for his violent actions,  he reasons that he’ll first have to conduct research in his local mosque. This is where he meets Bibi, an Imam at the centre. Their encounter, the reaction of the wider Muslim community and the confrontation of Mac’s plans changes the course of everyone’s lives forever. 

With stellar empathy and understanding exemplified by all the heroes of this Oscar-nominated documentary (including two Afghan refugees Bibi and her husband, Saber, and Jomo Williams, an African American), Seftel’s balanced and informative storytelling does well to avoid sensationalising the narrative. It’s something that’s all too easy to do when it comes to tackling themes of this kind. What we get in fact is an unassuming exploration into how trauma, lived in isolation and bereft of community, can easily affect the mind’s ability to  embrace  the possibility of change and the potential of healing. 

A Jewish man himself, Seftel’s mission to depict accurately communities vilified in the media, came from his own experience of anti-semitism as a child. ‘A Stranger at the Gate’ is part of his decade-long effort to tackle lslamophobia , shedding a light on Islamic teachings and transforming the world’s perception of American Muslims by telling their stories and changing perceptions. 

In a time where senseless acts of violence and hate are an everyday occurrence in the US, the pull of Seftel’s film will depend on whether you believe in the power of chance encounters and how they can lead to extraordinary acts of humanity.   

Rukayat Moibi is a lover of all things space, otherworldly and wonderful, after Logan’s Run stole her pre-teen heart. Since then, her love for film and media has expanded to include joys like Black stories and cinema, world films and immersive theatre. If she’s not nestled into her favourite seat at The Ritzy, you’re sure to find Rukayat building her eczema-focused brand, Rukai Skincare, a range for eczema and challenged skins alike.

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