Manchester filmmaker wins international scripting prize

Manchester filmmaker Faisal A. Qureshi has won the $10,000 pitching prize at the third Astana International Action Film Festival in Kazakhstan for his script The Adversary, which is based on the film genre Ostern, or 'Eastern', the Russian equivalent of a Western.

These were Russian films set on the steppes during the Russian Revolution or Civil War. They were propagandist in intent, but could still be watched as action films. The most famous was White Sun of the Desert, made in 1969. The Adversary is about a stranger recruited to defend a Jewish settlement from rampaging Cossacks.

Qureshi believes that the panel who awarded him the prize did so because:

the genre was something that they had not seen before or had even heard of. And I suppose because I am very enthusiastic about the subject.


By contrast the local journalists in Kazakhstan knew about about the Osterns:

They are highly regarded in those areas, even though they are pulp adventure stories.

As part of the prize the Hollywood production company Bazelevs Productions – whose films include the Angelina Jolie/Morgan Freeman film Wanted – has taken an option Qureshi's script and it is now going into development.

Qureshi works abroad with the British Council leading film workshops in countries as diverse as Bulgaria,Uzbekistan,Pakistan and Cuba. It was in Cuba that he heard about the Osterns which inspired him to write a script based on the genre.

In England he has worked on a range of film and television including Coronation Street, and has written radio dramas as well as lecturing at the Northern Film School at Leeds Metropolitan University. He has directed a number of films including Scribble.

Qureshi's most high-profile work was as associate producer on Chris Morris's BAFTA-winning Four Lions, one of the UK's highest grossing independent films.

He is involved in the media and entertainment industry trade union, BECTU, and chairs the Black Members Committee. The leader of BECTU General Secretary Gerry Morrissey says:

BECTU always cheers the success of British talent, but we are particularly pleased that such a strong supporter and active member has achieved such well-deserved success.


Qureshi is sanguine about when or whether The Adversary will reach the screen:

Obviously I am pleased about winning but it is still a long way to the production stage.