“The Long Goodbye” says a lot quickly

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By Fareeha Molvi

(This post was originally published to Instagram on March 30, 2022)

Emotional whiplash is the best way to describe Riz Ahmed’s Oscar-winning short film The Long Goodbye, co-created with Aneil Karia. This tiny but mighty film opens on a familiar scene of a British Muslim household buzzing around in exuberant excitement as they prepare for a dholki (pre-wedding) party. Beautiful in its normalcy, we watch as a typical brown family is chilling and bickering together in a modest home. Minutes later we are served a gut-punch, as the film visualizes the community’s worst nightmare. I couldn’t breathe watching the scenes of his family and other brown bodies being brutalized by Islamophobic violence. 

Ahmed and Karia said the second part was inspired by the rising intolerance and hateful rhetoric that has become commonplace in a post-Brexit UK. The scene is a haunting, fictional imagining of the worst-case scenario. The abrupt shift in tone from everyday happiness to jarring violence is meant to be a metaphor – comparing the UK’s relationship with immigrants to that of an abusive relationship.  

Visually, the short has a dream-like quality, almost like watching a music video – which makes sense given Ahmed’s musical chops. At the end he recites “Where You From” a spoken word track off his album, also titled “The Long Goodbye.” 

I’m in awe that this film won the Oscar for live action short film, a historic first in this category. Watch the film below: