“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” - Rumi
Iram Parveen Bilal’s feature film, I’ll Meet You There, is a beautiful love letter to her own community, yes, but it is also an artistic gift to families of all kinds everywhere. Bilal brings to life a story of intergenerational relationships and highlights various struggles: the struggle for connection across generations, the parental struggle to balance work pressures and obligations with one’s personal values, the struggle of a teenager grappling with her identity, and the struggle we all feel to find our place in the world and to build community and connection with others along the way.
This artful and thoughtful film is a dramatic thriller that tells the story of a Pakistan-American father and daughter (Majeed and Dua) as their life together shifts when Majeed, a Chicago police officer, agrees to go undercover for the FBI at his local mosque just as Majeed’s estranged father, Baba, comes to live with them. At the same, Dua, a ballerina preparing for an audition for Julliard, begins to reconsider her relationship to dance with her grandfather in the name of religion.
I was pleased to have the opportunity to speak with Bilal about the film, which stars Faran Tahir (Iron Man, The Old Man, Scandal, American Crime) as Majeed, Nikita Tewani as Dua, Pakistani star Qavi Khan (who has acted in over 200 films) as Baba, and Sheetal Sheth as Dua’s dance teacher and Majeed’s love interest, Shonali.
Bilal wrote and directed I’ll Meet You There. The screenplay grew out of her need to respond to the way the Patriot Act was affecting her community and the lack of nuance and understanding that existed (and still exists) with regard to Muslim Americans.
“I’m a woman who happens to be Pakistani,” Bilal explains. “Similarly, the family in the film is a family first. They are struggling with everything a family struggles with and yes, they happen to be Muslim, they happen to be Pakistani.”
Their identities are complex in juxtaposition to the stereotypes that are often present in media representations of Muslim-Americans and herein lie the significance of Bilal’s film.
“If you are putting our film in your library,” Bilal continues, “that is something you will find in this film: nuances as the film explores the experiences of a Muslim cop and a teenage ballerina.”
That nuance is what attracted Tahir to the film. “Faran is somebody that I’ve always wanted to work with,” Bilal stressed. “He is the most celebrated Pakistani actor in the West. He read the script at a table read in 2016/2017. He drove from San Diego and came and did the table read with no guarantee of getting the role…He said, “This script is a gem and I need to be a part of it.’”
Tahir’s portrayal of Majeed and his connection to the character pulls audience members in, especially when paired with Khan, the seasoned and lauded Pakistani actor who plays Baba. Their relationship really hit home for viewers: “Grown men called me with tears in their eyes,” Bilal shared, “saying I’ve never seen someone like my dad or someone like me on screen, so thank you.”
The richness and realness of these characters are what drew all of the actors to the film. In numerous interviews and post-screening question and answer sessions, the talented acting team emphasized the way they saw themselves, their family members, and their friends reflected back to them on the page.
Tahir, in particular, stressed the ways in which the film did something new as it reflected the South Asian community in the U.S. more fully than most media does. He also noted that the film offers hope, specifically regarding the possibility of respect amidst difference, and shared his personal hopes that this movie will encourage people to find a safe space where they can voice their concerns and not be vilified or demonized, but be humanized.
As someone who focuses on films for social impact and educational use, I see this film as a powerful tool for classroom use for the same reason: its ability to humanize various viewpoints. As Bilal points out, “the film focuses on shades of gray.” It is not presenting answers but humanizes various perspectives.
Bilal’s filmmaking team consisted of individuals from a wide range of backgrounds:s Muslim, Christian, Jewish, etc., but everyone found the film relatable because, at its core, it is a story of a family trying to reconnect with one another.
As central as Majeed and Baba (and their relationship) are to the film, their daughter/granddaughter, Dua (a teenager students will relate to) is equally important. She is a ballerina who, over the course of the film, begins to explore Kathak, a form of classical South Asian dance. She also begins to interrogate her relationship with dance as she engages with Islam in response to Baba coming to live with her and Majeed. Religion was something that was not a significant part of her life before Baba’s arrival.
In speaking with Bilal about the film, she underscored the ways in which dance serves as a metaphor for ideology, truth, and identity. Dance connects Dua to her past (her deceased mother was a dancer), but it also liberates her in the present. Bilal asserts: "We’re all dancing. We’re dancing between identities. We’re dancing between generations. We’re dancing between ideologies. We’re dancing between nations.”
Communities are dancing, too, evolving, changing, growing. The dance in the film reflects the dance of life and offers viewers hope in a time when we desperately need it. Bilal says it best:
We need to learn to co-exist and hear each other out. We need to understand that there is a common ground beyond our differences.”
This film invites us to do just that: to seek out common ground, to understand the complexities of the world, to seek out nuance, to find that field that Rumi speaks of, and to meet each other there.
The film is available on various streaming and video service platforms: https://illmeetyoutherethefilm.com/watch-at-home/. Educational licenses can be secured by emailing: ipb@iramparveenbilal.com.