Gods of their Own Religion rewrites the script when it comes to independent filmmaking | My Soho Times

It’s a rainy day in Soho, the epicentre of all things film, so naturally Gillian Smith sat down with director Naeem Mahmood to talk turkey about the film that didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of ever being made.  The one shot around lockdowns, the one soon to premiering at Cineworld, Leicester Square on the 23rd November. 

Never say Never – and don’t take no for an answer…

Gods of their Own Religion is a feature film garnering a huge amount of industry and public interest and if you want to know why, your best bet is to try and catch a glimpse of ‘No Budget No Script No Permission: making Gods of Their Own Religion’ put together by producer Sharoz Sheikh. The title alone pretty much nails how Naeem and his cast and crew were working while making this movie. 

But first I thought it might be a good idea to get the lowdown from the man himself on what spurred him on to direct a film during a pandemic at a time when even the meagre amounts of money available for independent budgets had vaporised? He was more than happy to explain:

“In the early parts of that lockdown, we were all facing this adversity and it felt very stressful and negative at the time. And that I lost a lot of work, like many people. But as it went on, a fire started to build in me. I’ve developed a thick skin in the filmmaking world over the years and that started to drive me as I looked around.” 

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So far, so relatable. But there was more. 

“I felt I’d really been conditioned over the years, and I’ve kind of lost a bit of my raw, authentic voice. And it started to seep back in, so I just felt, look, let’s make the impossible probable. I was blessed to have a really strong small team of people around me who I’d worked with before, who were like, we can do this. I never imagined that I could do a feature film in these conditions without the budget or script.

“It was just going be a short film originally, an experimental piece, to keep the creative juices flowing, nothing on this scale. I had started this short film and three days in, lockdown happened. And that’s when the whole thing just flipped on its head. Suddenly it was like, oh, wow, this won’t just be a short about a group of rebels. I started to feel instinctually what the theme would be.”

Given where we all were, or mostly weren’t, during 2020, it seems almost inevitable that a significant  chunk of the dystopian despair prevalent at the time would find its way into a production that had taken on a life of its own, evolving without a formal script.

“Gods of their Own Religion is set in a futuristic Britain, a technocratic empire where souls are being subsumed by a form of artificial intelligence. It follows a group of bandits and rebel dissenters who refuse to sort of conform and try to navigate their way around this frightening world where anti-human forces are closing in on them. They have to fight for their souls. It’s very surreal, psychedelic and very much a film that’s born out of the times.” Naeem’s succinct summing up of his project gives a glimpse into a way of working that was at the same time street and sci-fi.

“Everything was very, oppressive at that time – you can’t do this and you shouldn’t do that. But somewhere in there is the magic, not just the magic of creativity, but just the magic of unity, togetherness and connection. It felt like something was bigger, was happening with this project.

It wasn’t just, opportunism, as in here’s a great opportunity, I guess deep down inside it was maybe perhaps a form of activism as well.”

To make that work, you need a particular cast, willing to put themselves out there in a way in that might be considered almost unthinkable in more conventional times. The process was as organic as it sounds, and Naeem is hugely appreciative of the talents of everyone who contributed, with a special nod to his main players.

“Kyd Nereida is a model. She has this incredible exuberance and character that I just saw in the imagery. She’s like a ball of creativity and she really was the nucleus of the film that kind of kickstarted the whole project.  The other two leads – Ricki Hall was a model too, I’d worked with before. He had a hunger to prove himself, to push himself in a totally immersive way, draw upon his issues and put them into the character. There was also Christopher Chung, who’s now starring in the Apple TV series, Slow Horses, with Gary Oldman. 

“Everyone else came through agencies or casting websites. Even one of the main antagonists of the film, he was literally an extra that had just turned up for a small shoot. In the space of a couple of minutes I said, you’re going to play the antagonist. He’s like, what? But he was so excited.”

With the benefit of hindsight, and the return of life as it (kinda) used to be, was all the blood, sweat and tears worth it? Is he happy with the end result?

“Gods of their own Religion is really a celebration of humanity, of human beings – we often get a lot of stick these days – humans are all bad and so on.  But I think when we come together and put differences aside, we’re much more effective and so much better that way.”

I’ll take that as a yes, then.  The only thing now is to let his vision out into the wider world.

“I can’t wait to see it on the big screen and just share the whole experience with everyone else. And, and also to let people know, this is part one of a dystopian trilogy.”

After all this excitement and when everything calms down, I ask him, does he worry about losing momentum?  Not a bit of it.

“Going forward, we’ve got, quite a few feature films in development, And I’m setting up a digital course as well, which we will go through the finite detail, what’s required and what sort of mind state the individual requires if you are a director or trying to create an incredible project.”  Wannabe filmmakers would do well to take note. 

Watch out world, this guy is just getting started. 

No Budget No Script No Permission will be screening at Karma Sanctum Soho on the 2nd November. Get your tickets HERE!

Interested in My Soho Times hosting a screening + Q&A at your venue? Get in touch! events@mysohotimes.co.uk

Written by Gillian Smith | Images by Kai Lutterodt @the.soho.girl / Kerry Murray @kerrymurrayphotography

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