UK Asian Film Festival 2026 – Opens today with festival smash ‘Ghost School’ – films themed around ‘stories that bind us’…
Presented by Tongues on Fire and supported by the BFI Audience Projects Fund, the festival returns for is 28th edition…
🎥TODAY (May 1) – UK Asian Film Festival (UKAFF) opens with UK premiere of ‘Ghost School’ by British based director Seemab Gul – tickets still available, see listings below
🎥 Closing film is ‘Shadowbox’ featuring indie star Tillotama Shome, screens Sunday, May 10 with Shome in attendance
🎥 4K screening of ‘Umrao Jaan’ – Muzaffar Ali’s 1981 classic returns in a restored version at BFI IMAX (Southbank), with the director present for a Q&A
🎥 British Asian feature – ‘Never Had A Chance’ screens – Hounslow (Southall), west London based drama is by debut filmmaker Jazz Bhalla.
🎥 Festival expanded to include Leicester, Warwick, and Cumbernauld (North Lanarkshire, Scotland) – see link, below article
SEEMAB GUL’S ‘Ghost School’ takes centre stage today as the UK Asian Film Festival (once known as Tongues on Fire) gets underway this evening at the BFI Southbank in London.
The film enjoyed its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September 2025 and screened at the Berlinale in February this year, both to great acclaim.
Gul’s film focuses on a girl’s rural school in Pakistan that shut downs mysteriously and suddenly – leading her protagonist: 10-year-old curious Rabia on a mission to find out what’s happened. She uncovers corruption, superstition and the film has been described as ‘magical realist’ – with the drama suspended sometimes between reality, myth, dreams and visible conjecture.
Gul said: “Set against the reality of ‘ghost schools’ in rural Pakistan, the film shines a light on a system that fails its most vulnerable, while holding onto the hope that even the smallest voice can challenge it.
“I’m honoured to share this story with UKAFF audiences, who continue to champion bold, socially conscious cinema.”
This year, the festival screens films that play to the theme, Stories That Bind Us – and asks “what binds us together in an age of fracture?”
Muzaffar Ali’s ‘Umrao Jaan’ (1981) is a landmark Urdu‑language period musical, tracing the life of a Lucknow courtesan‑poet, adapted from Mirza Hadi Ruswa’s 1899 novel ‘Umrao Jaan Ada’.
The film stars Rekha in one of her most celebrated performances and is renowned for its poetic mood, Khayyam’s music and meticulous period detail.
Ali – a filmmaker, designer and descendant of Awadh’s (Lucknow) Kotwara principality – roots the film deeply in the cultural memory of the town once synonymous with a grand Muslim culture – drawing on his own heritage. The newly restored 4K version, preserved by the National Film Archive of India, comes to the BFI Imam on Monday (May 4). The film also travels to the Phoenix cinema in Leicester next Saturday (May 9). Ali, 81, will present an extended intro – see listings below for ticket details.
Another film that will be drawing much attention and is already selling fast is ‘Never Had A Chance’ by Jazz Bhalla and features well-known former ‘Emmerdale‘ stalwart, Bhasker Patel.
The film is described as “a gritty British Asian drama set in West London’s Hounslow Punjabi community. The film follows Ravi, a young man with a criminal past, as he struggles to rebuild his life while being pulled back into dangerous choices”.
It screens at the Kiln (Kilburn, north London) on Tuesday (May 5) – see listings below.
In the closing film, ‘Shadowbox’ (‘Baksho Bondi’) follows Maya (Shome) and her husband Sundar as they navigate life when Sundar comes under the scanner of a murder investigation.
It is described by UKAFF as “an intimate and emotionally charged portrait of a family negotiating pressure, fragility and unresolved pain”.
Dr Pushpinder Chowdhry, founder of Tongues on Fire Film Festival and UKAFF director, said: “In these uncertain and often divided times, cinema reminds us that storytelling is our common language of connection and hope.”
There are industry networking sessions and short films too – check the listings for the full programme
https://www.tonguesonfire.com/
Ghost School review – Ghost School; Lali; In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones; Members of the Problematic Family; Flying Tigers; shorts – Berlinale 2026 reviews – asianculturevulture.com
Shadowbox review: ‘Bakhso Bondi’ (‘Shadowbox’) – Berlinale 75: Everyday struggles spiral out of control despite love – asianculturevulture.com
Selected Listings
Today’s opening, ‘Ghost School’ 6pm Friday, May 1 BFI Southbank NFT 1, Belvedere Road, South Bank,London SE1 8XT Tickets – here
Never Had A Chance – 8pm Tuesday, May 5 – The Kiln,269 Kilburn Road, London NW6 7JR.
Tickets: https://kilntheatre.com/whats-on/ukaff-never-had-a-chance/
Umrao Jaan – 3.30pm Monday BFI IMAX, (Southbank), 1 Charlie Chaplin Way London SE1 8XR
Check ticket availability: https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/imax/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=umrao-jaan-ukaff
Closing Film – Shadowbox, Sunday, May 10, 5.15pm – BFI Southbank NFT1, Belvedere Road, South Bank, London SE1 8XT Tickets: here
