Inside Movie Gossip

One of the great things about being in a car for ten hours (each way) with the director of The Taqwacores is that you can ask all the questions that you wanted and chances are he’d have to answer.

Over the course of my ten days at Sundance, a plethora of questions were asked. What was Eyad’s favorite Knight book? (The Taqwacores, still.) How did he film the punk scene? (He got local bands and hired actors as the lead singer. Except for Al Thawra, who played themselves. And Said Fury was Volkan’s brother’s band). Who designed created the vest? (It was both Faith Gobidas who did fashion on set, and Marwan of Al Thawra who helped with set production.) Why were Rabeya’s patches all in Spanish? (Because those were the patches that Marwan brought to set.) How many Marines shirt did Volkan rip through? (Three). Where did you film the punk show? (In the same room that Jummah prayer was held in the movie). What about the party scene with Bilal’s Boulder? (That was filmed in the hallway. It was the only way to make it look like the party was packed.) How much of the movie went off script? (A surprising amount. The actors were given a lot of leeway in the spirit of DIY.) Who is Boxcutter Surprise that was listed on one of the punk rock flyers? (That was a “joke” super band that was created in the 2007 Taqwatour of all the Taqwacore bands together.) Did he use music by all the taqwacore bands in his movie? (Mostly, except for Vote Hezbollah. And for the final punk show scene he went with a Bad Brains song). Who are the telephone voices of Yusef’s parents? (The voice of Yusef’s mom was played by Rasika Mathur, and the voice of Yusef’s dad was played by The Kominas’ Basim Usmani’s father.)

But I’m sure these are only questions that geeky girls like me are interested in. Right?