The Lady of Heaven is a 2021 British historical drama film written by the Twelver Shia cleric Yasser Al-Habib, the spiritual leader and founder of The Mahdi Servants Union as well as Fadak TV. Produced by Enlightened Kingdom, the film is the first movie on the life of the historical figure Fatima, the daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, during the early Muslim period.
Plot
Laith, an Iraqi child in the middle of a war-torn country at the hands of ISIS, after losing his mother, finds himself a new home with an elderly woman who tells him the story of Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad, from the Shia perspective, explaining how she was the first victim of terrorism.
The film shows many historical events including the marriage of Fatima and Ali, battle of Uhud, Ghadir Khumm event, death of Muhammad by poison, event of Saqifa, attack on Fatima's house, sermon of Fadak and the burial of Fatima.
The faces of Muhammad and Ali are shown, however the face of Fatima is not shown.
Cast
Denise Black as Bibi
Gabriel Cartade as Laith
Ray Fearon as Abu Bakr
Mark Anthony Brighton as Omar
Chris Jarman as Bilal
Albane Courtois as Fatima Lanrawi
Oscar Garland as Raed
Yasmin Mwanza as Fidda (al-Nubiyya) Andrew Harrison as Qunfudh Sami Karim as Khalid Lucas Bond as Jamal Levan Saginashvili as Talha The Ram Matthew Brenher as Mukhayreeq Lasha Kankava as Abu Obaida Dimitri Andreas as Salman David Katsarava as Abu Sufyan Anna Matuashvili as Abu Sufyan's wife Christopher Sciueref as Hamza Ash Rizi as News presenter Nebras Jamali as ISIS Thug 1 Azad Boutella as ISIS Thug 2 Fred Maamar Fortas as Imam Ali's uncle
Many other figures, such as Imam Ali and the Prophet Muhammad, were shown using visual effects and CGI only.
Production
The Lady of Heaven was directed producer Eli King. Filming began in August 2019 in Georgia and continued through October of the same year in the cities of Tbilisi, Rustavi and Vaziani. The majority of filming took place in Vaziani and John Stephenson was brought on as a creative consultant. Further filming also took place in London the following months. It took the production team over two months to build the sets for Mecca and Medina as imagined in 622 AD. Actors Denise Black, Ray Fearon and Lucas Bond were also cast in the film, and Chris Jarman was confirmed to be portraying Bilal ibn Rabah, one of the companions of Muhammad. In March 2021, LA based sales agent Hannibal Media acquired worldwide rights to the film.
Per writer Al-Habib, in order to respect aniconism in Islam, all holy figures of Twelver Shi'ism were portrayed by light and cinematic visual effects as opposed to being portrayed by an actor or single individual; notably, some figures deemed holy in Sunni Islam but not Shi'ism were portrayed by darker skinned actors. This, however, is a historical reference and not a racist one. This has been addressed by representatives of the movie many times. Along with this, other characters who are deemed holy in Shi’ism were also depicted as darker skinned, this is also simply a historical reference. In an interview with Deadline Hollywood, the producers discussed how they tackled the very challenging aspect of depicting a Muslim holy personality.
Marketing
Marketing for the film has promoted The Lady of Heaven as the first ever cinematic production on the life of Fatima, during and after the era of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. A trailer for the film was released in December 2020. An attempt was made by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to block the trailer on social media platforms.
Writer Al-Habib has voiced his support for the film, stating that:
Additionally, Malik Shlibak, one of the executive producers on the film responded by stating:
The Mahdi Servants Union says:
Release
The Lady of Heaven was set for a 2020 release, but like many productions, it was delayed due to uncertainties in the industry related to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 25 October 2021, it was announced that the movie will be premiering in the United States on 10 December 2021.
The film was released on 3 June 2022 in cinemas in the UK. Protests by Muslim groups against Cineworld cinemas resulted in the film being dropped by the chain.