Abubakar Salim on Combating Grief Through Storytelling
British actor Abubakar (Abu) Salim, most recently playing Alyn of Hull in the new ‘House of the Dragon’ season, has launched his independent computer game ‘Zau: Tales of Kenzera’.
‘Zau’ breaks new ground in a few ways. It served as the story through which Abu processed and conveyed the grief he experienced after his father’s passing, while also celebrating Black and African culture in a way not done before in mainstream gaming.
Abu openly talks about his struggles with processing grief and talking about his father’s death, as well as their relationship, all of which led to him looking for ways to express it all. Through writing and gaming, he found that the best way to tell the story was through a video game – this is how the conceptualisation of ‘Zau’ began.
Parallel to his development of the game, for which he established his own studio – Surgent Studios – Abu was on set playing Father in the HBO sci-fi series ‘Raised by Wolves’. There, he met Ridley Scott Creative Group’s Luke Scott, who gave Abu the idea of dipping his toes in directing.
The fateful meet led to what we’ve come together for today – a film ‘My Shoes, Your Feet’, that Abu directed, with guidance from Ridley Scott Creative Group and Luke, aimed at contextualising the video game. The mixed media approach to creativity – using a live action short film to promote a computer game – was Abu’s way of making the art of gaming more accessible to those who might not have tried it before, and to tell the deeper story behind his journey with grief.
Today, Abu speaks to LBB’s Zoe Antonov about the human-interest angle in using creativity to combat grief, his biggest creative decisions when making the film and the game and why directing is his new thing.
LBB> With a background in acting, why did you decide to make a game, and then become a director and get behind the camera?
Abu> It’s all about telling stories. Whatever the best way to tell that story is, go down that path and explore that and honour it. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do.
In terms of the chronology of me being an actor, director and making a game… I always say I got into acting through games, because it was my way of kind of connecting to the stories and characters, wanting to jump in their worlds. That’s how it all happened.
LBB> You met Luke Scott on the set of ‘Raised by Wolves’. Was being on film sets the culprit behind your wanting to be behind the camera too?
Abu> To be honest, at that time I was already making ‘Tales of Kenzera’. So while I was on set I’d mention it, or people would see me on my phone and ask what I’m scrolling through and I’d be like ‘Well actually, I’m running a studio’ (Abu’s own Surgent Studios).
That’s essentially how the conversation started. From there it went from talking about directing a game to talking about directing a film and looking into that. As this started, I was speaking to Luke and asking for his advice as well. He really wanted me to direct it. I was like ‘I don’t know man’, but he was like ‘Well, you’re doing it anyway, for a studio. Why not do it as a film as well?’. That’s how I got into it as a whole.
LBB> How did you make the decision to create a game as a way to process your grief and commemorate your father?
Abu> It was one of those things that just felt right. I’ve always been wrestling with the idea of trying to convey the emotional element of grief. It’s been a very long time of not knowing how to do it, or what the best way of expressing it right is.
What essentially ended up happening was, I’d written a script – a completely different one – trying to figure out the best way to convey what the journey of grief meant to me personally. It wasn’t actually until I was playing ‘Ori in the Blind Forest’ in South Africa on my Switch, that it finally clicked.
I knew this was what I needed to do. It was the best way of conveying the emotion and connecting it as closely to my father and myself as possible, while staying honest about it. I always say ‘Write what you know’, which is where this essentially came from.
Keep in mind, when that first spark came, I had no idea what it meant to ‘make a game’. All I knew was that this story is a feeling that had to be described through a video game. And yeah, it took me a long time to learn, but I was very much adamant that I’ll do it and grow through it.
LBB> What were some big lessons that came with figuring out how to make a game?
Abu> The production element of it all, the team you need to build it, the time frame, the engine, the style - all of it. I knew how I wanted it to feel and play to a degree, but the idea of figuring out all the intricacies and important aspects… Man, that took a while.
LBB> ‘Tales of Kinzera’ is pretty groundbreaking in that it tells a very emotional, father-and-son story. Then there’s also the layers celebrating your African heritage, which is also quite new in a mainstream game. Was it a challenge getting the idea over the line?
Abu> When I pitched it to EA I was just building it from my own experience. It was only until I actually started looking into it and learning more about it all, that I realised there aren't many games in African mythology.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s a massive African gaming community out there, but with regards to working with EA you don’t really see many mainstream African games. I feel very fortunate that I’ve had this perspective and have approached the game on that front.
People ask ‘Was it a risk?’ or ‘Is there a market?’, but really when I was speaking to EA about it, those weren’t the questions, it was only ‘What’s the game?’.
LBB> Were you already building the world before you got involved with the RSA?
Abu> I was sort of starting here, there and everywhere. But it didn’t really go into hyperdrive until I had that support from Ridley and the team. I think there’s something to be said about someone like Ridley Scott and the Scott team as a whole, saying yes to you and giving you the go ahead.
They supported my voice and the inspiration that gave me really supercharged me to want to build something big. It made me stop apologising to myself about not knowing whether it will work or not. It was so great.
LBB> Let’s then go back to you on set with Luke, as well as him encouraging you to actually pursue directing, tell us more about that.
Abu> So Luke’s a gamer, meaning, he gets it. He understands the art form and, in turn, its artistic power. I think that says a lot.
We saw that we were very much aligned on the stories that we enjoy and those we want to tell, so we came together to think about how we can push this particular story further. It just made sense for us to join forces.
Once I got to the point of being like, ‘Yeah I would want to learn how to direct a film’, Luke was great at guiding me through it, telling me what to look for. He was a phenomenal mentor. He respected my artistic vision, but also allowed my freedom and protected me from rookie mistakes. The project ended up being something I’m so proud of instead of something filled with ‘I wish I’d done this or that’ moments.
LBB> What came first, you being encouraged to become a film director, or the idea of promoting the game through a short film?
Abu> It was a bit of both. My aim was to show the world that gaming isn’t just a hobby, it’s an art form and it should be respected, as well as taken as seriously as film and TV. I think there’s this feeling that gaming is a niche thing, even though it’s such a massive industry. It’s everywhere.
So the challenge for me was to bridge this gap between gaming and the rest of the industries that people take seriously. I wanted to connect my game with people who might have not even bought a game before. That’s when the storytelling aspect came in.
For me, doing it through a short film meant that it’s a very easy medium for people to take in. You only need 13 minutes of your time and you find out that there might be more to this than just a video game. That’s how you branch out into wider audiences – always through storytelling. It sort of acts as a way of advertising but really, truly, it is just me expressing that this is my love for games.
Context is also so important and I think this medium really does give you more context. Helps people understand where the game came from and why I did it. It adds another layer to their experience as a whole, and that’s what I wanted to provoke.
LBB> What were some of the big creative decisions you had to make along the way?
Abu> One of the biggest decisions was made very early and it was that nothing was off the table. Truly, if you want to be as open and vulnerable as humanly possible, nothing can be off the table. That’s what I led with, essentially – it allowed me to engage with family and share deeply personal things.
It was all coming from a place of authenticity and honesty, rather than necessarily trying to guard myself which I think was the problem when I was grieving. I was really trying to guard myself and I think that’s what got me into a funny headspace. I didn’t want to do that any longer. I found power through being open and vulnerable.
LBB> You’ve now dipped your toe in another art form this year. Do you know what’s next? Do you have ambitions to continue on your directing journey?
Abu> Yeah! For me, this is my calling. I had so much fun directing the short film. From the inception of it all, to doing it, to even being in the editing room. It was so much fun.
Don’t get me wrong, I love acting and I’m still going to be acting. I’m still going to be making games. But there’s something special about directing, about telling a story in whatever form it can be, as an advert, a short film, or a documentary. The act of storytelling through that medium is really awesome and alluring. It’s definitely won me over.
LBB> Now that the game is out there, what have the reactions been like so far?
Abu> It’s funny, I was having a conversation the other day and I was asked what kind of director I am – the kind that basks in the glory of a project being out, or one that goes through everything with a fine-tooth comb. I think I’m the second one.
I’m currently in the creative purgatory of suffering and going over everything, even though we’ve received critical acclaim and the project is being loved and widely enjoyed. There’s always going to be a part of me that wants something to be better. I’m working on that at the moment and trying to get onto a healthier mindset.
LBB> A bit off topic but, we have to ask this – is there anything you can tell us about ‘House of the Dragon’?
Abu> It’s gonna be great! It’s been so interesting, because it’s so different from ‘Raised by Wolves’ in the sense that I’m going into an established IP, part of the big HBO family.
It’s a world that has been very much lived-in and of course very loved. We didn’t have anything to prove, we just had to do our thing. It calls upon a different artistic energy than having to prove yourself on something from scratch.
I’m so looking forward to seeing what people think of the final product of season two, as well as my character. I really had a great time with ‘House of the Dragon’.
LBB> Any final thoughts?
Abu> What I’ve really learned on this journey is that, at the end of the day, it all lives and dies in the story. You can actually not have much of a production value on something, but if the story is good, it can connect and move people on a different scale.
Something that stuck with me was what my acting teacher once told me: “Normally, whenever you give something of yourself to an audience, you have to think that there’s two types of audience members. The person who’s seeing it for the first time - you want to convince them to come back again. And the person who’s seeing this for the last time, because life is unpredictable. You don’t know what could happen and you have to make things that stay with people.”
As long as you hit these two people, everyone in the middle is a bonus. That’s something I’ve tried to carry through my career and in my studio – paying homage to those people, getting new people involved in the arts and getting the art form itself stronger, but at the same time, giving viewers the enjoyment of something beautiful.
