Riz Ahmed plays a rapper struck by a rare illness in the remarkable Mogul Mowgli [CIFF]

Riz Ahmed stars as an up-and-coming rapper who discovers he has a rare autoimmune disease just before a major tour in this absorbing and thrilling narrative feature debut from director Bassam Tariq.

Zed (Ahmed) is a skilled MC who raps about the struggles with his British-Pakistani identity. He’s about to head out on a major U.S. tour supporting the mainstream mumble-rapper RPG when he suddenly falls fill and is forced to cancel the trek. Stuck in the hospital and surrounded by his friends and family as he tries to come to terms with his diagnosis, Zed faces nightmarish visions that make him question his faith, identity, his career, the cultural implications of working in a medium created by and inspired by Black artists, and the violent past his parents escaped from when the British imposed the Pakistan/India partition a generation earlier.

There is a lot going on in Mogul Mowgli, and the bombardment of hallucinatory images, a capella rapping (written by Ahmed), and intense subject matter combine to create an overwhelming sense of dread, which is thankfully punctuated by a few choice moments of levity, most often by the great Alyy Khan as Zed’s father. Riz Ahmed (who also co-wrote and produced the film) gives a truly arresting performance in a moving film about cultural identity and how our past can’t help but inform our future. Hopefully, Mogul Mowgli is a film we’ll be hearing a lot about come Oscar season.

Mogul Mowgli screened during the Calgary International Film Festival.