Directed by Eslam Hozayen, ‘In A Parallel Universe’ is a drama short that takes a look at an alternate reality America where Black people succeeded in creating their own nation in the North with Whites as their slaves.
Starring Thompson Jaah, Fatah Kouraan, Fatu Konneh Bryce Bohne, the film tackles a sensitive subject matter with poise and nuance. While the film may evoke strong feelings from the red states aligned crowd, it is a fantastic piece of art first and foremost and thus, should only be understood from the lens of historical fiction and alternative history.
The acting is fine and Hozayen does a good job of weaving together different narratives around the core central idea. The cinematography is rich and the creative team makes use of a plethora of different visual ideas to tell the story. Of particular richness are the sun soaked shots of the outdoors as our protagonist takes a ride across the alternate world where Black people have emerged victorious in the race war. In addition, the interview with a Black leader that slowly goes very bad for the white interviewer also provides an interesting perspective on the overarching narrative.
Part art-house and part historical revisionism, In A Parallel Universe turns the tables of the age-old White-African American conflict and shows us a world where African Americans succeeded in establishing their own free state. With white people filling in as slaves, the film is a potent reminder of what generations of African Americans
must have felt when hundreds of thousands of them were ravaged, tortured, maltreated and killed in the centuries of slavery that persisted on the American continent.
Hozayen has created a unique film which shows the uncomfortable truths from an African American perspective and therefore might help White Americans empathize more with the tremendous trauma that African Americans went through and still go through to this day. The film has won the hearts of festivals across the U.K, the U.S, Canada.
Singapore and India; it has also received lots of backlash but that’s something you’d expect from a concept as provoking as this. Hozayen has recently posted the acclaimed project on his online platforms, Instagram is one of which; where the short film has gained almost nine thousand views since posted earlier Friday morning.
It can be watched here https://www.instagram.com/tv/CUfg08ylNmS/?utm_medium=copy_link
