SUSHI FROM SOUTHALL

I Am From Him.

(1) Home.

We zoom in on a "WELCOME TO SOUTHALL" sign sited above the local train station. Different action plays out on the streets. Children are eating a variety of Indian street savouries. A group of women leaving a sari shop proceed to admire the dresses through the window. There are a group of Sikh men dancing to bhangra music wearing Indian cricketteam shirts. We arrive outside a house.

(2) THE FRESH PRINCE OF SOUTHALL.

There are two separate single beds located on opposite sides of the boys bedroom room. An alarm goes off, a boy's arms rise up from under the sheet groggily, and he turns off the alarm.

                    ZULIEKHA (OS)
          Abu! Abdul! Zaynab! Get up now.
          Jaldi, jaldi. We still have to pick
          up your cousins.

A CLOSE-UP of Abubakar, a 12 year-old, scrawny, frail South-Asian lad. He sits up from the bed and winces, as he inadvertently grazes his bruised and battered face with his forearm.

                    ABDUL
          You look like the Joker. The shit
          Indian version.

ABUBAKAR lobs his pillow across the room. His brother, ABDUL (10) catches and grasps at the pillow in comfort.

(3) FAMILY TRIES.

An unknown lady yells phrases in Gujarati; her voice fights against the honking and hooting of cars. ABUBAKAR appears from the front door. The lady ruffles his hair as he scurries past. ZULIEKHA waves at the lady.

                    ZULIEKHA
                   (In Gujarati)
                   See you soon!

A wary ABUBAKAR opens the rear passenger door. His eyes shoot up at the sight of five young schoolgirls (aged 6-15) squashed together in the back seat. A neatly-dressed girl, ZAYNAB, sits patiently in the middle. ABUBAKAR tries to stare down ZAYNAB, eyeing her up and down. Suddenly she darts her eyes at him through her peripheral vision.

                    ABUBAKAR
          Muuum! I'm older, get up man!

                    ZAYNAB
          It's my first day, please! Dad,
          please tell him.

KASSIM (35) pivots from the driver's seat, a disposable camera firmly pressed against his face.

                    KASSIM
          Abu, let the girl sit with her cousins.

KASSIM takes a picture of ABUBAKAR, and the brightness of the camera flash causes ABUBAKAR to flinch. He drops down to the floor of the car, lying flat like a corpse, his head pressed firmly against the bottom of the car door.

                    KASSIM (cont'd)
          Now smile.

KASSIM clicks away with the disposable camera. The girls smile, and sequence their poses bashfully. ABUBAKAR eventually musters a half smile but gets inadvertently kicked in the head as the photos are taken.

                    KASSIM (cont'd)
          Oh that reminds me...

KASSIM exits the car.

(4) ASIAN FAMILY ROADTRIP.

KASSIM rushes out from the car. He eagerly opens the car boot, disposable camera in hand. ABDUL and two male cousins are hunched over, kicking and fighting brashly.