Shelter

Rajab pitched the film to me as the first part of a mini-series he was developing, all of which would be set on the Bordesley Green Allotments.
I found the story to be beautifully endearing with it's small scale, sensitivity and tenderness whilst also being quite intimate. This drew me in, as prior to this point I focused mainly on darker, grittier stories which were very intense in comparison.

We first worked to cast actor and actress Lewis Wallace and Aila Swan, to establish the light-hearted tone I was seeking as Director. Rajab brought onboard Valentine Wallace as Director of Photography, where we spent the next few weeks developing the visual aesthetic of the picture.

As Rajab's father, Nasaar, owned a plot on the allotments, access was essentially free.
We carried out a test day of shooting in order to grab real-world frame examples, then developed our pre-production components for filming.

As the shooting day arrived, we conducted a tightly packed single day of work. By far, the hardest difficulty we faced on the day was mine and Lewis's hayfever allergies, but we persevered through the efforts of the cast and crew.