‘Breaking Fast’ Breaks Down Barrier for Muslim Queer Stories

Hollywood writer and director Mike Mosallam is on a mission to end the outdated stereotype that you cannot be gay and Muslim.

In his debut feature film Breaking Fast, which is now available on demand and digital, audiences follow Mo (Haaz Sleiman), a practicing Muslim still reeling from a heartbreak. When an All-American guy named Kal (Michael Cassidy) offers to join him in his nightly Iftars, the traditional meal eaten by Muslims during Ramadan, the two discover they have more in common than what meets the eye.

This romantic comedy set against the twinkling lights of West Hollywood was originally released as a short in 2015 and received overwhelmingly positive reviews. It aims to be the first of its kind to feature a practicing Muslim character who is gay and not dealing with those two things in conflict, but rather, in harmony.

OFM had the opportunity to chat more with Mosallam about the film.

Hi, Mike! Thank you for taking some time to chat with me about your new film, Breaking Fast. This is your directorial debut. How exciting is that?
It is very exciting. It is so hard to make a film regardless, but it is especially hard to make it on the independent film side. So, I could not be more excited and feel more blessed about the process.

Breaking Fast was originally a short that you wrote and produced a few years ago. What made you want to expand on the story?
The expansion into the feature came about because after and during our festival run with the short, so many people emailed us and came up to us after screenings and were like, what happens next? What happens to Mo and Kal? We want to know. We had not really considered expanding. We did not go in thinking the short would be a proof of concept, but it just sort of organically worked out that way. Five plus years later, here we are with the Breaking Fast feature.What initially inspired you to create Breaking Fast in the first place?
I was at a coffee shop with friend of mine, Michael Lannan, who was the creator of Looking on HBO. I was sort of singing his praises about the show and how much I loved it. He was like, what in film and TV best represents you? I had to really think about it for a minute, and it stumped me because I do not often see queer stories about faith that are not in conflict, and I certainly do not see Muslim or Arab stories where a person who is a part of the LGBTQ community is not shrouded in shame and fear and those two things are not working against one another.

He was like, you should write something. So, that is where the short came about. I really wanted to tell a story that looked, sounded, and felt like my world, my friends, and just the conversations I have been having for pretty much my whole adult life.

Is the film achieving your goal of breaking down barriers for the gay Muslim community?
I hope so. I love the film; I hope people continue to love the film, but I really hope that just at the sort of baseline, it begins a conversation that is highly needed in both communities.

Have you always had a passion for writing and filmmaking?
Breaking Fast is the first thing I ever wrote, but I have always been, and would always like to be a creator of content. Whether that means producing, directing, writing, or a combination of all, I just really want to be in a space where I have the ability to tell compelling, nuanced, and authentically specific stories.

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How has Breaking Fast been received by audiences?
So far, so good! It has been received very well. We have maintained 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and someone every day is sending me a message on social media or otherwise thanking me for this film’s existence.

The amount of love I have been receiving is quite overwhelming. That is not to say that there is not criticism both from the cinephile community, as well as various other communities, but that is absolutely overwhelmingly trumped by people’s real love and support for this film.

I heard that you were anticipating some backlash, especially from the Muslim community. Did that happen?
I am always reluctant to just blatantly say the Muslim community because the Muslim community is in fact a makeup of many, many communities. I am sure there are factions and pockets of the Muslim community that will take issue with this film, just like there would be from any other sort of conservative faith-based organizations or communities.

Again, it would be silly for anyone to think that there are not gay Muslims or there are not gay religious people. Those people exist, and their stories deserve to be told just as much as anyone else’s.While Haaz Sleiman who plays Mo is actually gay, Michael Cassidy who plays Kal, is straight. There have been several debates in recent years about casting straight people in LGBTQ roles. What was the decision to cast Michael as Kal?
You are right; that is a very important conversation that has been happening in the landscape of filmmaking and casting in Hollywood and showing representation. Those conversations are absolutely necessary and need to be happening. I think it could present a slippery slope if we blanketly say that only gay actors can play gay roles because that could then be turned around and someone might say, fine, only straight actors can play straight roles. I do not think that is what we are trying to do here.

In the end, though, what is very important is the opportunities given to people. In this film, the opportunities given in the audition room were as equitable as possible. We saw a substantial amount of gay actors, but in the end, Michael Cassidy was the best talent for the role. Beyond just being a tremendous actor, he had this approach to how it is not about being gay or straight. He has a job to love someone, and he does that on screen.

For me, I was really going for someone that not only the character of Mo would fall in love with, but somebody that the whole world will. Anyone who sees him in this role will certainly fall in love with him.

Did Haaz and Michael play Mo and Kal in the short?
They did not. There were different actors, and we saw both of those actors for the feature. Ultimately, the feature was just a different tonality of the short and just went in a different direction. Certainly, the actor who played Mo in the short is a tremendous friend of mine and a wonderful supporter of this film.

What more do you hope to accomplish with your platform as a writer and filmmaker?
I really hope that I am given an opportunity to tell more stories that put people of color in the driver’s seat of the storytelling. I hope that we can continue to tell authentic and nuanced storytelling.

As a content consumer, I like to spend my time watching things that are really sort of authentically specific because I think that when a filmmaker is able to dive into a specific world, what we eventually realize is how universal that world really is and how at the core of humanity, we are very much all the same. Those are the kind of stories I hope to continue to tell.

Before we wrap up, are there any other upcoming projects or anything else you would like to mention or plug?
I am developing my next feature, and I hopefully will go back into production on that. Probably not this year, but next year. God willing.

Breaking Fast is now available where you can buy or rent movies. For more information, visit the film’s official website. To stay up-to-date with Mosallam, follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or visit his official website.

Photos Courtesy of Vertical Entertainment