Mayor Mohamed, a film by longtime Montclair resident Jeffrey Togman, will have its world premiere at the 2021 Brooklyn Film Festival on June 11 at 7 p.m. at Windmill Studios located on 300 Kingsland Ave., Brooklyn.
“The film follows Mohamed Khairullah, the mayor of Prospect Park, New Jersey, as he fights the forces of Islamophobia in America and risks his life to bring humanitarian aid into war-torn Syria, his country of origin,” an announcement of the premiere says. “When a local politician runs a Trumpian campaign to “make Prospect Park great again,’ Mohamed’s political survival, and a particular view of what it means to be American, are on the line.”
Togman first met Mr. Khairullah at Congregation Shomrei Emunah, a Jewish synagogue in Montclair.
“What struck me most about Mohamed and Prospect Park was how people from so many different walks of life came together through their civic engagement and patriotism,” Togman said in the announcement. “And all the while Mohamed was making these dangerous trips into Syria to try to do anything he could to address perhaps the greatest humanitarian crisis of the 21st Century.”
“It’s just a great film,” Brandon Harrison, the feature documentary programmer at the festival said. “Certain films just stick out. ‘Mayor Mohamed’ was one of those films. It’s such an intimate portrait that shows not only a man’s dedication to his community but also the complexities of politics in this country.”
The festival is also being staged online June 4 through 13 via the festival website, brooklynfilmfestival.org.