Moin Hussain, the director of “Sky Peals”, has produced an endearing movie about a man who suspects he may be an alien. He does so subtly and adeptly by making an allegory about isolation and solitude. This thirty-something Englishman whose origin is Pakistani suggests that there are millions of people living within other cultures and among others, although they feel detached from their roots. Hussain’s filmmaking skills make it more interesting than just explaining about Adam as an individual in a narrative with sci-fi themes.
Adam (Faraz Ayub) still resides with his mother Claire Rushbrook who is English, while working as a cook at a service station’s night shift kitchen. His life is confined to home and work only without any clear close relationship seeming. As such he has been withdrawn himself from the world since he never managed to genuinely connect with people in it. The passing away of his estranged father makes Adam develop different emotions for this unfamiliar man.
The peculiar relationship with his father starts with several desperate voicemails left requesting to see Adam.
He learns that his father was adopted and that no one in the family has any clue about where he came from. He just turned up one day out of nowhere. His uncle Hamid (Simon Nagra), who was glad to let him know some warm stories connected to his father’s relatives, told him about this sudden death and invited him for the funeral. That side of his father’s family which is Pakistani was unknown to him before.
Adam begins to think that he and his father could be aliens not just to Britain but to the earth as well as the whole of humankind. Simultaneously, he starts to lose consciousness while having hallucinations about a very colorful place with some eerie voices calling out his name. Since Jeff (Steve Oram) is now his boss, it also makes things complicated for him when Tara (Natalie Gavin) joins the company and behaves strangely towards Adam, which is something that he’s not ready for.
The screenplay by Hussain provides further clarification on the binary opposition existing between two cultures to which Adam belongs. His Pakistani relatives refer to him as Umer whereas all white people in his life know him by a more Anglo-Saxon name (Adam). He transforms himself even more by replying only as Adam and never mentioning Umer at all. In response, Adam visits doctors in an attempt to get better. Still, neither medical practitioners nor group therapies seem like they can perceive beyond a bewildered or somewhat insane character.
Ayub’s acting is both understated and muted, yet manages to shock because it captures so perfectly a man who tries not to take up any space in this world. No wonder people forgot about him.
Even his comrades believe he is new to the job. Adam, as Ayub, is reticent, undecided and consistently sorry saying that he looks on the floor and walks with his shoulders rounded forward. Adam wants to disappear and be unseen but somehow Ayub manages to remain entirely captivating while raising a lot of questions among the viewers. Hussain’s use of close-ups and medium shots allows the performer space to tell this character’s story through small movements or slight changes in facial expressions. Adam has a way of repeating what people say to him as if they were speaking in a foreign language. In those instances, Ayub makes one think that his role could actually belong to some unknown planet rather than human being.
As “Sky Peals” progresses, Adam comes closer to Tara. They start off awkwardly with each other but he slowly realizes that he may not be alone in feeling like an outsider per se within society anymore. He also shares a moving scene with his mother (Rushbrook manages to bring such warmth here) that punctures Adam’s shyness around everyone else. It’s obvious where the film is going, but that doesn’t make it any less touching.
All the visual cues do not work. At times, they seem like very basic special effects that lack any emotional appeal. Some people may find its contemplative rhythm to be too slow; nevertheless, “Sky Peals” itself is a journey that can be enjoyed when the whole story is over. It enlightens and touches viewers while leaving them more secure in the knowledge that they will also eventually discover their niche on earth’s confusing map.
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