By Nural Sümbültepe
Omar Mouallem is a Canadian writer and filmmaker whose work has appeared in Wired, The Guardian, The New Yorker, and Rolling Stone. His book How Muslims Shaped the Americas—a travelogue centered on thirteen mosques—was named one of The Globe and Mail’s best books in 2021 and received the 2022 Wilfrid Eggleston Nonfiction Award from the Alberta Literary Awards.
Mouallem has directed and produced two documentaries and has now made his first narrative short film, “Nader’s Girl”. It will be screened at 2 p.m. on Sunday (July 26) at Small World Centre (180 Shaw Street) in the heart of Toronto.
I had the opportunity to speak with him about the film, which follows Nader, a lonely Palestinian international student in Toronto who invents an imaginary girlfriend in an attempt to assimilate into the culture and gain recognition and respect.
Nural Sümbültepe: I became interested in your film when I learned that it was based on a story that Saeed Teebi wrote. His story, “Her First Palestinian”, was shortlisted for the 2021 CBC Short Story Prize, and I later discovered that he went on to publish a story collection (Her First Palestinian: And Other Stories), which includes “Cynthia”, the story your film is based on. The film is a faithful adaptation of the story, I would say. What drew you to choose that particular story?
Omar Mouallem: I’m primarily a nonfiction storyteller, and up until now my film work has been almost entirely documentary. Part of that is because I find it hard to start from a blank canvas—most of my documentaries have been based on articles I’ve written, so they’ve effectively been adaptations. When I decided I wanted to make a scripted film, I knew I needed source material to work from.
I was specifically looking for short fiction by Arab American and Arab Canadian writers—something manageable for me as a first-time narrative filmmaker. Scripted filmmaking is exponentially more complex than documentary. With docs, you can find the story as you go, and audiences are forgiving so long as it’s truthful. With scripted work, a single off note—a bad line of dialogue, a weak performance, poor lighting, bad sound—that will pull people right out of it. So it felt important to start with something contained and solid.
When I read “Cynthia”, it checked all those boxes. It’s darkly funny, but it’s also doing a lot thematically and politically without being heavy-handed, which I appreciated. So many MENA stories, in film and literature, are overtly political and for good reasons, obviously. But with this, the politics are always under the surface.
NS: It was more about social acceptance, wasn’t it?
Omar Mouallem: Yeah, exactly. It’s about social acceptance—and more broadly about immigrants and foreigners, particularly young men from a sexually repressive culture. But it’s also about—and these are Saeed’s exact words—“the viral nature of toxic masculinity”. That’s the theme that spoke to me most. My first documentary was about that too—but through the lens of men in the oilsands. So, thematically and narratively, it resonated, and because it’s so contained with one location and four characters, I could immediately see how it would translate to film.
I was actually flying to Phoenix for a solo writing retreat—something I try to do once a year to isolate and work on passion projects—and I was rereading Her First Palestinian on the plane and came back to “Cynthia” for a second time. I started seeing the movie on the page, and scribbled notes in the margins for how I’d compress time or visualize an inner emotion.
When I landed, I cold-messaged Saeed—we didn’t know each other at the time—to ask if he’d be open to optioning the story. Before he even got back to me, I’d already finished a draft of the adaptation. Luckily, he said yes.
NS: If I were reading the story, “Cynthia”, with the intention of adapting it to the screen, I would, of course, see how crucial the script would be. And you’ve done a great job on that from what I see. That said, I imagine the success of the film would largely depend on the performances. Besides the script, the acting would allow us access Nader’s psychological experience, his internal struggles, conflicts. Did you have the actors in mind before the script? Or did the casting come later?
Omar Mouallem: Yeah—from the beginning I knew casting Nader was going to be everything. There simply aren’t that many young Arab men working as professional actors in North America, and I wanted someone Palestinian who could bring real psychological depth and personal resonance to the role. I wasn’t willing to make the film without knowing who Nader was going to be.
I reached out to casting director Kara Eide, who I went to film school with at Langara, and she agreed to help. Once we started looking, it became clear very quickly when we’d found the right person. Anas Hasan was only the second actor to audition and he completely nailed it. We kept auditioning, but his performance was just on another level from the rest.
I’d met Anas briefly before at the Mosquers Film Festival in Edmonton. He’s Palestinian, born and raised in the United Arab Emirates, and a deeply sensitive, non-macho person. He naturally embodies so many of Nader’s qualities. He really sank into the role.
Saeed was also involved in the casting process as an executive producer, which was invaluable. He knows these characters better than anyone—he’s lived with them far longer than I have—and he was a great guide in making sure we cast the right people. In the end, I think the performances are the film’s biggest strengths.
NS: In the film, we observe questions of assimilation and Palestinian diaspora identity. In a way, it’s a timely film. Did you choose the theme on purpose in the context of the current political situation and genocide in Gaza?
Omar Mouallem: That’s a great question. It influenced me a bit. When I reached out to Saeed in early December 2023, about six weeks after October 7, nobody could have imagined the scale of the genocide to come.
NS: …but the Palestinian issue has been an ongoing for many decades, right?
Omar Mouallem: Yes—but what’s different about this moment is that the issue has become mainstream in a way it hadn’t before. It turned into a mass political movement, with huge protests and sustained activism on campuses.
The Palestinian question was always present for me—as it is for most Middle Eastern people—but when we moved closer to production, the cultural context had shifted dramatically—and the story, a campus story really, felt outdated. In the original version, Nader’s roommates are only vaguely aware of Palestinian identity. Today, that’s no longer believable—especially in post-secondary spaces, where Palestine has become one of the most defining political and social issues, tied to free expression and student civil rights.
The script needed some light updating—nothing heavy-handed—just subtle adjustments to reflect that new reality without turning the film into a polemic. Saeed was very direct with me about keeping the contemporary Palestinian issues covert.
NS: Like the keffiyeh.
Omar Mouallem: Right! There’s a scene where one of the girls his roommate brings home is wearing a keffiyeh and takes an inappropriate interest in Nader, practically fetishizing his perceived victimhood in the way she talks to him.
Watch the trailer for “Nader’s Girl”.
NS: Omar, would you call yourself mainly a writer? You’ve written a lot and made significant contributions. You also have two successful documentaries to your name. Is this your first narrative film? What’s next for you?
Omar Mouallem: I’m a multimedia storyteller—I also write books, articles, and my next project is going to be a podcast.
NS: You mentioned your interest in Middle Eastern stories. Who would you say your favourite Middle Eastern writer writing in English?
Omar Mouallem: I’d say Laila Lalami, the Moroccan American writer. She’s brilliant. Her most recent novel, The Dream Hotel, is incredible and it will make a great film one day. It’s dystopian science fiction, and unsettlingly predictive of where we’re headed with artificial intelligence. It has shades of Minority Report: a world where people record and share their dreams through a kind of social platform, only for that data to be sold to the government and eventually used against them to prove they’re a threat to society. She’s a remarkable writer. I would love to adapt her work one day.
NS: Thank you, Omar, and good luck with the film.
“Nader’s Girl” will be screened at 2 p.m. on Sunday (July 26) at Small World Centre (180 Shaw Street) in Toronto. Nural Sümbültepe is a B.C. teacher. The Toronto Spark is on Bluesky @torontospark.bsky.social.
