Falling in Love with the Flawed: Al Naffah’s Take on Modern Romance

Welcome Alexander, we are very excited to have you today with us to discuss about your work.

Who is Al Naffah and how did the passion for creating begin?

He is an odd fellow who subsists mainly on a diet of black coffee and taramasalata. Historians have identified the early twenty-first century as the accouchement of his creative zeal when he directed, wrote and co-starred in a series of low-budget kung-fu films which achieved unprecedented success across the whole of his parents' garden.

Can you tell us a bit about your previous work?
Stephanie Dellacosta is the first feature screenplay I have written. Prior to that, I focused mainly on novel writing and am finalising a semi-autobiographical novel entitled Damascene about the Syrian Civil War, as well as a television sitcom, Mrs Sarkisyan, which details the lives of two tenants in a building owned by a cantankerous Armenian grandmother. I have also written a jazz-funk musical, Antarctic Psychotherapy, about creatures in Antarctica who seek psychotherapy to deal with the harsh conditions of their environment which has narrowly become the market leader in musicals exploring the psychological state of Antarctic creatures.

 Let’s start with the obvious question—what inspired Stephanie Dellacosta? Was there a single moment, memory, or late-night pizza-fuelled epiphany that sparked Ian Pandourian into existence?

The premise of Stephanie Dellacosta is loosely inspired by something that happened to me when I was in my late teens, but the film itself explores wider themes around dating, attraction, mental health and compatibility. In many respects, it examines the challenges of finding lasting love as we get older and more wedded to the external roles which we have selected for ourselves, or which we may have fallen into by mere accident. The connection Ian and Stephanie shared as adolescents was authentic and pure, but the roles they have adopted as adults have made finding such connection again nearly impossible - that is, until they find each other again.

CONVERSATION ABOUT: ''Stephanie Dellacosta''

Romantic comedies often glamorize love—but Stephanie Dellacosta feels like an ode to imperfection and emotional messiness. Was this your way of modernizing or subverting the genre?

All humans are imperfect and emotionally "messy", but it doesn't mean that the love between them should be any less glamorous. I didn’t really set out with the intention to modernise or subvert the genre, but I did want to demonstrate the concept that, often, the greatest obstacles to our love-lives can come when we become too entangled with the roles we are playing to accept who it is that we really are deep down. When we participate in the game of love as fake versions of ourselves, it is sadly inevitable that we will eventually emerge empty-handed.

You mentioned that “they don’t make romantic comedies like they used to.” In your view, what’s been lost in contemporary rom-coms—and how does Stephanie Dellacosta aim to bring it back?

When I was growing up in London in the late 1990s/early 2000s, the romantic comedy was in its heyday with films like Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary and My Big Fat Greek Wedding achieving huge critical acclaim and box office success. Joanna Rossiter recently argued that “the romcom is dead” by saying that classic romantic comedies simply “don’t chime with the modern experience”, and that today’s audiences are too cynical for the idealism of rom-com romances. Arguably, romantic comedies have been successful due to their ability to marry the magical with the mundane – a chance encounter or a “meet-cute” the start of a blissful happily-ever-after. Many factors of modern life can make it difficult for contemporary audiences to believe in this magic when what once was mundane also seems to be the stuff of fantasy; whether it be the use of dating apps, less prosperous economic times, a changing conversation around gender or even the rise of artificial intelligence. With Stephanie Dellacosta, my aim was to preserve the charm of the classic romantic comedy within a structure that resonates with contemporary audiences and provokes thoughtful reflection around important topics.

Stephanie is portrayed as both an object of desire and a prisoner of that desire. How did you go about humanizing someone who could easily be written as a two-dimensional “dream girl”?

I started by reading more about the personal lives of glamorous Hollywood actresses such as Marilyn Monroe and Carrie Fisher, and noticed a common theme of deep sadness amongst actresses famed for their beauty just as much as their acting ability. Then, I spoke to a number of women who were in the modelling or acting professions and asked them if they had personally experienced the feeling of their beauty being an obstacle towards being truly “understood”. Unanimously, they answered yes, and so I set out to ensure that I developed the character in close collaboration with them to avoid creating a female protagonist who was a mere reflection of the male gaze. It was important to me that the script accurately reflected the female experience of both the asset and claustrophobia of “pretty privilege”, and that it did not fall into the trap of depicting the relationship between the two characters with an overly male narrative.

What reactions do you hope to elicit from audiences watching your project ?
Ideally, I would prefer to remain somewhere on the spectrum between modest laughter and sublime awe, rather than between mild offence and aggressive litigation.

In future projects, do you plan to explore similar genre intersections, or are there other genres you're eager to explore ?

I enjoy the intersection of psychology and romantic comedy. For instance, I am currently working on another feature rom-com, "Three Golden Apples", which is a modern-day retelling of the Greek myth of Atalanta. In the original myth, Atalanta is a champion athlete who refuses to settle for any man who cannot beat her in a foot race, ultimately succumbing to Melanion with the help of Aphrodite's three golden apples. In my script, she is a successful lawyer who suffers from an avoidant attachment style and a dislike of dating until she ultimately falls for Melvin, a literature professor who enlists the help of Aphrodite, in the guise of a sex and relationship therapist. When she provides Melvin with "three golden pieces of advice", he is able to win Atalanta over by converting her attachment style from avoidant to secure.

You’ve written that “we are all Ian Pandourian”—neurotic, nostalgic, and quietly hopeful. Is the screenplay ultimately a celebration of the awkward dreamer in all of us?

I awkwardly hope so. 

This marks the conclusion of the interview featuring our esteemed artist, Alexander Naffah. Our community is growing steadily, with a continuous influx of skilled filmmakers and screenwriters joining us. Explore our other interviews, and consider scheduling one for yourself to showcase your creative endeavors.