Movies by Meera Syal

Yesterday
A struggling musician realizes he's the only person on Earth who can remember The Beatles after waking up in an alternate reality where they never existed.

Desert Flower
The autobiography of a Somalian nomad who was sold in marriage at 13, fled from Africa a while later to become finally an American supermodel and is now at the age of 38, the UN spokeswoman against female genital mutilation.

The Canterville Ghost
An American family moves in to the Canterville Chase, a London mansion that has been haunted by ghost Sir Simon De Canterville for 300 years.

A Nice Arrangement
Documents an Indian-English family's attempt to give their Briticized daughter a traditional Indian arranged marriage, with as much photography as possible.

Dragon Rider
An unlikely trio of heroes – a dragon, a boy and a forest brownie – embark on an epic adventure to find the “Rim of Heaven” - the mythological safe haven for all dragons.

National Theatre Live: Behind the Beautiful Forevers
India is surging with global ambition. But beyond the luxury hotels surrounding Mumbai airport lies a makeshift slum, full of people with plans of their own. Zehrunisa and her son Abdul aim to recycle enough rubbish to fund a proper house. Sunil, twelve and stunted, wants to eat until he’s as tall as Kalu the thief. Asha seeks to steal government anti-poverty funds to turn herself into a ‘first-class person’, while her daughter Manju intends to become the slum’s first female graduate. But their schemes are fragile; global recession threaten...

The Boy in the Dress
Dennis feels different - an ordinary boy in an ordinary house in an ordinary street, playing football with his mates and living with his dad and brother, but frustrated by the boring grey world he inhabits. Life has never really been the same since his mum left. However, transformation can happen in the most unexpected places. Aided by Lisa, the coolest girl in the school, Dennis creates a whole new persona and puts it to the ultimate test - but can a boy wear a dress, and what will the headmaster, his dad and his friends on the football te...

Handsworth Songs
The Black Audio Film Collective’s acclaimed essay film, 'Handsworth Songs', examines the 1985 race riots in Handsworth and London. Interweaving archival photographs, newsreel clips, and home movie footage, the film is both an exploration of documentary aesthetics and a broad meditation social and cultural oppression through Britain’s intertwined narratives of racism and economic decline.

Better Than the Original: The Joy of the Cover Version
Through ten carefully chosen cover versions that whisk us from the British Invasion to a noughties X Factor final, this film journeys over five decades to track how artists as varied as The Moody Blues, Soft Cell, Puff Daddy and Alexandra Burke have scored number 1s with their retake on someone else's song. Each of the ten classic cover versions has its own particular tale, tied not only into its musical and cultural context but also the personal testimony of the artists, producers and songwriters whose lives were changed in the process.

Spin
Rhea lives with her tight-knit multigenerational family. After her mother’s death, she has been her father’s emotional rock, and her life revolves around her family’s restaurant, her eclectic group of friends, and her after-school coding club. Everything changes when she falls for aspiring DJ Max and a long lost passion for music is reignited. Rhea discovers that she has a natural gift for creating beats and producing music that blends her Indian heritage, but must find the courage to follow her true inner talent.

The Almond and the Seahorse
For Gwen, it's always 1999. The face in the mirror is unfamiliar and her partner isn't recognizable to her despite waking up together every day. Joe's past is coming undone and his partner, Sarah, fears she will be forgotten. A doctor refuses to give up on them, determined not to let them unravel.
Tinsel Town
Bradley Mack, a Hollywood action star with a bloated ego, is blindsided when his iconic action franchise is abruptly canceled. With his career in freefall and worried his Hollywood days are behind him, he heads to England, hoping to rebuild his image as a serious actor on the West End. But his long-suffering agent has other plans, sending Bradley instead to a small, snow-dusted village to star in the town’s eccentric production of ‘Cinderella.’ As he fumbles through rehearsals with a colourful cast of oddball locals, Bradley begins to discov...