“They were very kind to share their intimate stories, but it was more important to find all the natural human elements. “We’d sit with them and hear their stories, and just kind of find out little nuances,” he tells AnOther. While Sharrock, who studied Arabic and politics, wrote the film after spending a year in Damascus and later in southern Algeria working with an NGO at a refugee camp, El-Masry’s primary research came from a Syrian single male group in Edinburgh.
“He’s made his own decision and he’s also constantly reminding the audience how much he loves his country reminding everyone around him that he wouldn’t want to be anywhere else other than back home with his family playing music.” In Syria, Omar had enjoyed some fame playing the oud, and in Scotland, he carries the instrument around wherever he goes. “Omar tells his own story, there’s no western saviour making sure he’s in a better position,” he explains. Born in Cairo and based in London, the actor was initially tentative about potentially portraying a stereotype, but quickly fell for the project after reading Sharrock’s early blurb. “Clearly the budget went to the star of the show.” In reality El-Masry ( Industry, The Night Manager) is very much Limbo’s star, but in sharing this detail about his scene partner(s) – named Freddie Jr after the Queen frontman – he echoes the comedy that runs through the otherwise keenly heartfelt and frequently devastating film about asylum seekers left stranded indefinitely on a fictional Scottish island.Īs Omar, a Syrian refugee who wanders around the island in a striking turquoise coat, his right wrist in a pink cast, El-Masry is fiercely reserved, his expression typically deadpan.
“Freddie the chicken had a stunt double,” says Amir El-Masry of the bird that gives him an alarming wake-up call halfway through Ben Sharrock’s sophomore feature Limbo.
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