Asad (film)

Asad is a 2012 South African-American short film directed by Bryan Buckley. The film was nominated for the 2012 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.[3]

ASAD
Film poster
Directed byBryan Buckley
Produced by
  • Mino Jarjoura
  • Associate: Matt Lefebvre
  • Executive: Kevin Byrne
  • Hank Perlman
  • Producers: Bryan Buckley
  • Rafiq Samsodien
Written byBryan Buckley
Starring
  • Harun Mohammed
  • Ibrahim Moallim Hussein
  • Ali Mohammed
  • Abdiwale Mohmed Mohamed
  • Mariya Abdulle
  • Najah Abdi Abdullahi
Music byMarcel Khalife
CinematographyScott Henriksen
Edited byChris Franklin
Distributed byShortsHD[1][2]
CountryUnited States
South Africa

Produced in South Africa by Mino Jarjoura of Hungry Man Productions, the cast is made up of Somali refugees living in South Africa, none of whom had any acting experience prior to production.[4]

After being nominated for an Oscar, the film was released along with all the other 15 Oscar-nominated short films in theaters by ShortsHD.[1][2]

Plot

Asad is a fisher boy in Somalia. His friends, led by Laban, are pirates; Asad feels as if he is suited for the pirate life. An old fisherman named Erasto would rather he stick to an honest fishing life as opposed to piracy. Asad has never been able to catch anything on his fishing trips and is beginning to give up hope. Erasto tries to lift his spirits with his largest catch of the day.

When Asad is taking home the fish with his friend various people on the street ask if he has caught it and he angrily tells them that he has not. His friend suggests that he should lie but Asad says that if he does he will be cursed forever and won't catch anything. As they are talking they run into a group of Somali rebels that ask where all the beautiful women in their town are. When Asad's friend says he does not know they threaten to kill him; Asad offers them the fish to save his friend's life.

The next day Asad goes out to the sea to meet with Erasto for a fishing trip and sees the old man injured by the boat. Since Asad had mentioned where the fish came from, the Somali rebels had come for him. Erasto's arm was so badly injured that he could not fish. He tells Asad that the boy's luck will change today and he will finally catch something.

Asad feels the tug of a fish when out at sea and tries to pull it in, but it instead pulls his boat out farther into the sea, where he spies a luxury boat similar to the one that Laban and his friends were going to hold for ransom. Asad goes to see what happened and finds Laban, his friends, and the woman who had the boat all dead. He begins to inspect another room and finds a Persian cat, which he brings back to Erasto. Neither of them know what a cat is, but they say that it looks like a white lion. Erasto marks that Asad's name means "lion". Asad names the cat Lionfish and takes it back to his village to take care of, his luck changed.

Awards
Awards for ASAD
Year Association Award Category Status
2013 Academy Awards Best Short Film - Live Action Nominated
2012 Tribeca Film Festival Best Narrative Short Won
Los Angeles Film Festival Audience Award Won
Austin Film Festival Audience Award Won
Best Narrative Short Won
New Orleans Film Festival Best Narrative Short Film Won
Rhode Island International Film Festival Grand Prize – Best Short Film Won
Traverse City Film Festival Special Jury Prize Won
HollyShorts Film Festival Best Short Film Won
One Lens Film Festival 1st Place and Social Justice Award Won
Mill Valley Film Festival BAFTA/LA Award - Best Short Film Won
San Jose International Film Festival Best of Fest Won
Denver Film Festival Starz People's Choice Award for Short Film Won
Boulder International Film Festival Best Short Film Won

Festival Selections
gollark: I have no idea about *that*, but it's not valid to say "12 protests in your area → guaranteed (i.e. 100% or nearly) chance of one or more being violent".
gollark: > 10 percent of BLM protests are violent. that means if you have 12 protests in your area you are guaranteed to be hurt, or have property damageRandom nitpicking, but that is *not* how probabilities work.
gollark: Although, I'm not sure how a "no capital system" is meant to work, given that you need capital to produce basically anything.
gollark: Lots of the things fitting into each category are completely different from each other in other ways.
gollark: But that's not necessarily a *good* dichotomy.

References
  1. "Oscar Nominated Short Films 2013". The New York Times. 2013.
  2. "Asad". The New York Times. 2013.
  3. "Nominees for the 85th Academy Awards". Retrieved 2013-01-10.
  4. "Asad - Inspiration". asadfilm.com. Archived from the original on 21 February 2013. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
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