This story proposes female relationships as a place of transcendence and transgression.
Signature Move, a heartfelt look at modern families and the complexities of love will have its world premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival at Austin, Texas, in mid-March. The film tells the story of Zaynab (Fawzia Mirza) a 30-something Pakistani Muslim lesbian lawyer living in Chicago who begins a new romance with a confident and vivacious Mexican-American woman, Alma (Sari Sanchez).
Zaynab’s recently widowed mother Parveen (Shabana Azmi) moves in and spends her days watching Pakistani TV dramas while searching for a potential husband for her only daughter. Alma’s mother, Rosa (Charin Alvarez), is a former professional Luchadora, which Zaynab finds fascinating as she has recently taken up lucha-style wrestling training with a former pro-wrestler, Jayde. Zaynab tries to keep both her love life and her wrestling a secret from her Muslim mother, who knows more than she lets on.
“I love to dispel myths of the ‘model minority’ in mainstream media and love to use the power of comedy to tackle divisive topics and breakdown stereotypes. Signature Moves is all about that,” says actor, producer, writer Fawzia Mirza. Mirza was named a White House ‘Champion of Change’ in Asian American Art & Storytelling and named one of the ‘8 Muslims Defying Donald Trump’ for her work as Ayesha Trump in her mockumentary The Muslim Trump.
“I believe art should be used as an instrument for social change,” says Shabana Azmi, a veteran of over 35 years and 140 Hindi films. “It has to be involved in the rights of women, development, reproductive health, housing for the economically weaker sections, public health and HIV AIDS. From Fire to Signature Move is a natural transition, I think.”
The scripting has been mentored by Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Festival and produced by Michael Shannon, who is in the running for best supporting actor at the Oscars. Calling Signature Move a story by women about women, director Jennifer Reeder said: “In this case, strong women of colour across cultures and generations redefine the face of the new American family. It is also a coming of age story. Coming of age doesn’t end after the teenage years; it’s a life-long process. And although Muslim women are often depicted as needing to be saved, nobody needs saving here. These women, like everyone else, are just trying to figure it all out…in this case, with the help of a little bit of wrestling.”
Reeder insists her stories are about “unruly women and landscapes they transform,” and adds: “This story proposes female relationships as a place of transcendence and transgression. I am committed to this voice and to producing unexpected narratives.”
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