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Actor/Creator/Co-Writer Saïd Boumazoughe and Director Bob Colaers talk to Fest Track about filming in Said's old neighborhood, bringing a story back to his community and the challenges of breaking down societal cliches in regards to their action film: "Attack On Paradise" playing the Septentrion Shadows section of the 2026 Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, Quebec.

#AttackOnParadise #FilmMaking #CommunityImpact
Transcript
00:25You were shooting, you know, in your spot, in your home neighborhood and all that.
00:29So your boys, all your friends must have been out there, everything cheering you on.
00:34Can you talk about the energy of that?
00:36Because that probably pushes you harder and harder and harder.
00:39Making these movies is not easy, man.
00:41No, because, no, like I said, the first thing was to finance it.
00:47Okay, you have the financial part.
00:49And then you have to, yeah, you have to put your money where your mouth is.
00:53You know what it is?
00:54So that's why, that's why it's my biggest challenge because I was also creative.
00:57But also, that's another thing.
01:00For me, the biggest support was for me and Bob saw it also.
01:04The guys that we use, like you had a lot of problem, the kids that we used as security guys
01:11into the movie sets.
01:14I remember a time when we were shooting in the block that there was a little guy, this was in
01:21the morning, full of proud.
01:23He did his door open.
01:24He saw me in his hallway.
01:25And I'm a well-known actor.
01:27But he said to me, he said, are you shooting in my blood?
01:29I said, yeah, I'm going to make a movie in your blood.
01:31And he said to me, wow, my dream comes true.
01:34You're shooting a movie in my blood.
01:36For me, it's like, I saw my little, my little me back.
01:40For me, it's like, yeah, the circle of life.
01:41And also, in the hood, they were, not only in the hood, just in Antrim, but in every hood now,
01:47asking me, when are you coming to shoot in our hood?
01:50It's like, finally, we can dream.
01:52Finally, we are something.
01:53Finally, you make us heard, like the voiceless, you give us a voice.
01:59Whoa, whoa, whoa, Suleiman!
02:01Bro, Suleiman Solo, living legend.
02:11My biggest challenge is to, to broke those, to broke the cliches.
02:17If you want to, if you want to, if you want to, if you want to break a cliche, we
02:22have to start from the cliche.
02:23So it's easy for me to go to a suburb, to go to another, but to, to tell the story
02:30from where I grew up.
02:31But, and still, nowadays, every day I'm going, I'm passing the block, and then my son said, Papa, that's the
02:41block where you, where you made the film.
02:42I said, yeah, but that's all the block where your dad grew up.
02:45It's about legacy.
02:46It's about legacy.
02:47Now, every kid can say, that's not the problem block, that's the block where Saeed put his movie.
02:52And that's, for me, the definition of, of persistence and culture.
02:56Because a lot of people use those pictures of the block to say, that's the block of the dealers, that's
03:02the block of the dealers.
03:03But now the people can say, now that's the block where Saeed put a, where Saeed made his movie.
03:08And that's a revolution.
03:23That's a revolution.
03:27That's for me, the legacy.
03:29And also how the, how the hood, when we were shooting, and all the hood, they, they were, they were
03:37aware about it, that we were shooting a movie, and that the guys who were signing security, I said, yeah,
03:43is this, is this, is this the movie of Saeed?
03:45They said, yes.
03:46So if there's any problem, we're here.
03:48So like the two gangsters from the hood, like, so we're here with Saeed, if there's something, we got him.
03:53You can shoot whatever you want, we got, and we didn't have any incidents.
03:57Fathers came to me with his sons, mothers, they were like, I don't know, you saw the movie, huh?
04:04Yes, I did, yes.
04:05Yeah.
04:06You have the sequence, you have the sequence that I'm hanging on the, like all the stunts I did myself,
04:11but you have the sequence that I'm hanging on the, outside the building, huh?
04:15Yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:16You have mothers?
04:17You have mothers, called my mother and said, your son is hanging out in the building.
04:21And then my mother, my mother proudly said, no, no, no, he's just shooting a movie.
04:26And then they said, okay, okay, if he needs something, call us.
04:30Also, other mothers in the block who make tea, working tea for the crew, huh?
04:35Yeah, that's cool.
04:36That's community.
04:38That's community.
04:39That's, that's, yeah.
04:40And that's why I'm going to try to make, bring the communities together without activism, you know, because a lot
04:45of people are woke activism.
04:47Now, just if you share common passion, like me and Bob, we don't have the same background, but we have
04:51the same passion.
04:53And that's, that's for me the biggest, uh, uh, winst advantage in this, in this movie.
05:00That's where, that's where we're about.
05:01That's beautiful.
05:02I love it.
05:03Different backgrounds coming together.
05:05Uh, that's, yeah, that's for me the biggest, yeah.
05:16The, the, the most important thing for me was when, when I got the screenplay to read, uh, I, I,
05:23I also got the, the motivation letter of Saeed.
05:27And, uh, reading about how he grew up without, uh, heroic figures, uh, that shared the, the, the same, uh,
05:37background as, as, as, as, that really struck me.
05:40Because I, when I grew up, I was surrounded by, uh, a lot of heroes and I, I, I believe
05:48it's important for young people that they can identify with, uh, a hero.
05:53I believe that they can shape a childhood.
05:57So that made us strongly, more strongly than ever that we wanted to make or that this film needed to
06:04be made.
06:05Um, so while we were filming, I always kept in mind that we, um, that we are, are filming, are
06:13making this movie for the young people who are struggling and, and, and people, some people who feel abandoned by
06:21the society.
06:22Um, we, we, we hope that when they go see the movie, that they, um, see Suleiman as a hero
06:30and that they can look, that they have someone to look up to.
06:34And, and that when they leave the cinema, that they, they leave with a feeling that they never should give
06:40up because that's, that's the most important thing in life that, that you never give up.
06:52So,
06:52Five.
06:53Five.
06:56Five.
06:58Five.
06:59Five.
06:59Five.
06:59Four.
06:59Five.
06:59One.
07:05Six.
07:06One.
07:10Three.
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