In Camera

In Camera revolves around struggling actor Aden (Nabhaan Rizwan) and his daily misadventures navigating eccentric casting heads, racial stereotyping, surreal visions, and masculine insecurity.

In Camera is a thought-provoking and oddly funny exploration of modern masculinity. On the surface, In Camera seems like a day in the life of a brown actor. But this is not a knock-off of Aziz Ansari's Master of None or an adaptation of any brown comic's standup routine. Instead, In Camera somehow focuses on race and divulges from it at the same time. With its ear-piercing sound design and nauseous close-up shots, Aden's discomfort at being subjected to the white gaze is quite apparent in the nightmarish casting auditions. But then, Naqqash Khalid's witty screenplay quickly changes the mood as Aden reads his parts, ranging from blonde aliens in a Riverdale setting to a stereotypically offensive Muslim terrorist. But when the otherwise-expressionless Aden is asked about his ethnicity, the actor chooses to remain quiet, establishing that he's much more than a brown face. The ambiguity of the character makes for an interesting exploration of an actor, which is all the more impressive because Khalid hasn't had any major industry experience before. Instead, he takes free rein in coming up with intentionally cringe-inducing auditions and photoshoots while slowly building up to Aden's pent-up anger as a job-seeker in this economy, as just another cog in the machine. The binary of the surreal and real that Khalid balances in this bold and assured directorial debut makes him a British talent to watch out for in the coming years.

Nabhaan Rizwan delivers a knockout performance as the zoned-out protagonist, Aden. Audiences might not know Rizwan's name, but they would have definitely seen his face, be it as the only brown soldier in Sam Mendes's 1917 or, more recently, as Zeus's wine god son Dionysus in Netflix's Kaos. However, In Camera deserves to be his breakout film, thanks to his stunning lead act as Aden. Rizwan's protagonist is an empty vessel as he interacts with his flatmates or wanders on the streets. But when he has to face the camera, he can put on whatever phony accent or wide-toothed grin that the script demands. In a meta turn of events, Rizwan succeeds in portraying the chameleon-like nature and the identity crisis of an actor. Who is the real Aden? Does Aden have any feelings of his own? We are left to wonder as we empathize with this up-and-coming actor or even laugh at his misery.