Arlo Green as Said in Miles From Nowhere. Photo: Screenshot
Miles From Nowhere is the brainchild of poet, writer and journalist Mohamed Hassan.
The six-part drama-comedy series is about the everyday and not-so-everyday experiences of the Muslim diaspora in Aotearoa.
Set in Auckland, Miles From Nowhere is based on Hassan’s, and his community’s, experiences but also his experiences as a reporter on real-world surveillance, counter-terrorism and Islamophobia.
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Arlo Green plays lead character Said, a young Kiwi-Muslim songwriter in crisis. His fiancée has dumped him. His career is non-existent. His passion for music is crippled by lack of confidence. And his mum worries he’s losing touch with his faith. Who still believes in Said? A government spy he shouldn’t even be talking to. Said forms a dangerous friendship with the Security Intelligence Service agent spying on him, risking his whole community to fulfil his dreams.
Green taught himself to play the guitar for the role and helped co-write many of the songs that feature in the series.
Said is something of a loser, Green says.
“Very much a loser. I'm a loser in my real life. So, it was quite easy. I guess he's just really aimless, he's in a deep, deep hole.”
Hanah Tayeb plays Said's younger sister Soraya.
The surveillance elements to the show feel poetic, Tayeb says.
“I feel like a lot of Muslim Kiwis kind of have the shared experience of feeling othered or feeling watched by people.
“I remember growing up. I was a baby when 9/11 happened. But I remember going to New Zealand and going to primary school and still getting bullied for 9/11, even though it was like a decade later.”
Tayeb’s character is Said’s number one bully, she says.
“She lives in Sydney, she's married with kids. She's got her life sussed and she's kind of Said's number one bully. But I think it's because she loves him so much.”
She's also “hilarious as hell”, she says.
“She's cool as hell, and I can't wait for everyone to meet her and to love her as much as I do.”
Green was hesitant to get involved in the project at first, he says.
“I sort of divorced myself from the community just because of the sort of experiences I'd had.
And I'd had a unique upbringing in that sense. And so I was scared to return, because I thought once I wear that hat, you'll always see that hat.
But it felt important. And I loved the writing and the team assembled. And I thought, it didn't feel reductive. It didn't it didn't feel like a paint by numbers.”
Tayeb jumped at the chance, however.
“Moving to New Zealand was my first interaction with a Western country and I was terrified. And I saw no representation. I saw nothing that made me feel like there was a bit of home with me, like there was some nostalgia or something to relate to. There was nothing like that.
“And so, when I saw that the show was casting, I jumped on it as fast as I could.”
Miles From Nowhere launches on Sky Open this Wednesday and will then be seen on Neon.