Casting Paid LMU Film

Project Title: Shakir

LMU Project

Paid opportunity, Shooting in Los Angeles

Shooting date: October 4-6

Union or nonunion Actors

Logline: During the Sudanese civil war, a young man leaves the chance to flee with his

former friend to his sick younger sister as the friend can only take one person, before

being killed in the next morning.

Synopsis: Late night, SHAKIR (24) scurries towards a leaving pickup truck in front of a

country house in heavy steps, holding his sick younger sister HAMSA (10). It stops, and

Shakir’s childhood friend, ISHAN (25), gets off from the driver’s seat. Shakir accuses

Ishan of not waiting for them as he promised earlier, but Ishan explained that his father

GASIM (53), who has been presumed dead, just returned home from the army and took

a seat on the vehicle. After Gasim refuses Shakir’s proposal to take both of them,

Shakir makes Gasim agree to take only one person and leaves the chance to Hamsa.

He proposed to guard Gasim’s house in exchange for his promise to cure Hamsa,

before the vehicle leaves. As the sun rises the next morning, Shakir has been found

lying in bloodshed where they said goodbye last night.

1. Shakir (Lead, 24, Male, Arabic, Arabic-speaking)

Shakir was born in North Kordofan, Sudan in 1999. He is an Arabic Muslim from the

pastoral Kenana tribe. His father was a herdsman, his mother was an illiterate. They

gave birth to another girl in 2003. During the Darfur conflict, however, the influx of

refugees led to a food shortage that claimed the girl’s life. Shakir survived that famine

narrowly.

One day when he was herding the sheep at the age of seven, he met Ishan who was

working in the watermelon field. They became friends. During the dry season in 2009,

however, Shakir and Ishan’s tribes had conflicts over the use of water source. Since

that, they’ve been forbidden to interact publicly. But they kept the friendship.

After Ishan’s family moved in the new house, the friends began to grow apart. When

Shakir was 15, his younger Hamsa was born. Four years later, he went to El-Obeid to

work in a wood factory, hoping his family can move into the city someday.

Soon after the 2023 civil war broke out, Shakir returned to his family. One day two

weeks later, his parents and brother took the cattle to the market, but they never went

back. With the insurgency at the doorsteps, he decided to take Hamsa to flee.

2. Gasim (Lead, 53, Male, Arabic, Arabic-speaking)

Gasim was born in 1970 in North Kordofan, Sudan. He is an Arabic Muslim from the

farming Humeid Tribe. He is tall and stout. When Gasim was 15, he joined the militia to

fight the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), witnessing fellow militia members’

crimes. In 1991, his militia was formalized into Popular Defense Force (PDF). He

married next year, then had two sons in 1992 and 1998.

As Darfur conflict erupted in 2003, Gasim was transferred to Sudan Armed Forces

(SAF) 7th infantry division with the rank of Major. He fought in Darfur for 2 years until

the first round of major hostility was over in 2005. In 2009, Gasim was promoted to

Colonel, before he started to use his power to embezzle. He and his family lived in an

air-conditioned house with imported appliances, driving a Ford pickup truck.

When the 2023 civil war broke out, Gasim’s 7th infantry division was besieged in El-

Obeid. As SAF’s defense began to collapse, he sneaked home disguised as a civilian,

planning to flee abroad with his family.

3. Ishan (Lead, 25, Male, Arabic, Arabic-speaking)

Born in 1998 in North Kordofan, Sudan, Ishan is an Arabic Muslim from the farming

Humeid Tribe. He is Gasim’s younger son. It was his mother Hind that brought him and

his older brother up, growing sorghum, millet, peanuts and watermelon. She was a

kind and generous woman, often teaching Ishan to be upright and have good moral.

One day in 2006, Ishan met Shakir when working in the watermelon field. They became

friends, but they’ve been forbidden to meet publicly since a conflict took place

between their tribes in 2009. After Gasim started to embezzle in 2009, Ishan and his

family moved to the new house two years later. He and Shakir gradually grew apart.

In 2023’s civil war, Ishan’s older brother, who has been serving in SAF, was killed in

action near El-Obeid. Soon, Ishan and his mom lost contact with Gasim as El-Obeid’s

communication was cut off from outside. Rumors spread that the 7th infantry division

has been encircled and destroyed, so Ishan, assuming Gasim was dead, packed up

with Hind and planned to flee towards Cairo.

4. Hamsa (Supporting, 10, Female, Arabic, Arabic-speaking)

Hamsa was born in 2014, North Kordofan, Sudan. She was an Arabic Muslim from the

pastoral Kanana Tribe. As the youngest kid in the family, she was born when her oldest

brother Shakir was 15. Knowing her birth, his father returned home from the gold mine

in Darfur to take care of her.

Hamsa spent her childhood without experiencing much turmoil. The number of

livestock her family owned steadily increased. When she was 5 years old, Shakir went

to work in El-Obeid, and Hamsa missed him very much. In 2021, her father sent her to

the local sheikh for education, which was an opportunity very rare among the girls.

Soon after the 2023 civil war broke out, Shakir returned home, adding to Hamsa’s

sense of security. But everything changed that day when her parents and her second

brother took the cattle to market as usual. Shakir went out looking for them that day,

but to no avail. Losing livestock made their economic standing precarious. Two weeks

later, she had fever and deteriorated, which made leaving home a necessity for Shakir.

5. Hind (Supporting, 49, Female, Arabic, Arabic-speaking)

Hind was born in 1974 in North Kordofan, Sudan. She is an Arabic Muslim from a

farming tribe. Not expected to support her family economically, she didn’t go to school

in her childhood. She was the third one among her 6 siblings. Her childhood was spent

in relative political stability, as Addis Ababa Agreement brought 10 years of peace to

the civil war.

Soon after the Second Sudanese Civil War broke out in 1983, militia activity intensified

in North Kordofan, which interrupted the livelihood of Hind’s family. Her family

struggled with life in the next 9 years. She was promised to Gasim, who was a junior

officer in PDF, in 1992 in an arranged marriage.

Arriving at Gasim’s Humeid tribe, she made a living by growing sorghum, millet,

peanuts and watermelon with the help of her husband’s relatives. In 1998, the second

boy, Ishan, was born. Thanks to her hard works and the money Gasim sent back, the

family didn’t starve much. Nonetheless, she still teaches her children the traditional

virtues of generosity, hospitality and politeness.

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Hamzah Saman, CSA