THE GOOD FIGHT STARRING MOHAMMED F. MOSTAFA
Written By: William Buckley
Actor and pioneer, Mohammed F. Mostafa, is fighting on two fronts - on screen and behind it - pushing Emirati cinema into sharper focus. At Rocky Road Boxing Club, ironically, the path is clear, scripted. Outside the ring, Mohammed is finding his own path. And on his wrist, Hublot measures each moment - a precise reminder that timing, as much as impact, shapes the trajectory.
At Ninive Beach in Dubai, with the sun setting over the Arabian Gulf, Emirati actor Mohammed Mostafa sat down on the sun lounger next to mine. We’d wrapped our shoot with Hublot and it was time for interview things. “You’ll probably find out more about me in the next hour than you have since we met,” he said, with his big smile. Mohammed is someone I’ve known for eight-ish years. We met when I first arrived in Dubai, and we catch up every now and again, mostly at events, once randomly in Mykonos, and it’s always good banter, but I’ve never heard the whole story… until today.
I remember when he landed a role in Apple TV’s Hijack, the Idris Elba-led thriller that seemed to be advertised on every available surface of planet Earth; it felt big. Not polite-big. Big-big. Airport billboard big. Group-chat big. “Wait, is that Mohammed Mostafa?” big.
Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Impact All Black 42mm, HUBLOT
He had acted lots before, beginning his career as a baby, when his older brother, the filmmaker Ali F. Mostafa, cast him in such homemade epics as the action-packed Baby Batman, and the spy franchise prequel, Baby Bond, all shot on a handheld JVC camcorder.
Later, more serious roles arrived: Under the Sun, The Worthy, and Al Kameen (released internationally as The Ambush), the Pierre Morel-directed military film that became one of the UAE’s major homegrown cinema moments. Still, Hijack was another creature. Seven episodes, Apple cachet, Idris Elba in crisis mode on a plane, and Mohammed as Abdullah, an air traffic controller at Dubai International Airport. In episode two, he mentioned it was his birthday – immediate emotional attachment. “Aww!”s echoed around the world, and everyone swooned. And then, when he was killed not long after, it landed like a punch to the gut. Since I already knew Mohammed and liked him a lot, some might call it bias, but still, I maintain that even objectively, Mohammed’s Abdullah was the best bit of the show (no offense, Idris.)
After that, Mohammed leant properly into acting. This wasn’t a straightforward pivot. He’d spent years chasing professional football, training as a goalkeeper at Al Wasl, trialing with clubs in England, then signing with Al Ain at 28. He’s worked in finance, built companies, returned to the family business, launched new initiatives, and somehow also finds time to teach yoga, study Muay Thai, and write poetry (note from author: interviewing impressive people will invariably make you question your own life choices – comes with the territory).
Mohammed wears Hublot Big Bang Reloaded Dark Green Ceramic 44mm, HUBLOT; Shorts, BADIBANGA
Then came Khattaf, the Abu Dhabi TV series in which he starred as an MMA fighter, putting the fight training to work (his flying neck scissor takedown will never not be astonishing). And off the back of that, a stunt actor role on what might be the biggest film of the year, Dune: Part Three, proof that sometimes the career plan can be as simple as throwing people across better and better sets.
But beyond on-camera close-ups and selfies with some of the most celebrated actors in the world, Mohammed is thinking bigger. He has built his company – MFM Media – around production services, product placement, and talent, with a sharp eye on Abu Dhabi’s film incentives and the wider goal of establishing the UAE as not just a backdrop, but a working engine for global cinema. Seems fitting for a man who started life as Baby Bond.
WILLIAM BUCKLEY: So, let’s start at the beginning. It’s always a good place to start.
MOHAMMED F. MOSTAFA: So, the beginning starts – and I always have to give credit where it’s due, with my brother. If it wasn’t for Ali, I would not be in the film industry. He’s 10 years older than I am, and he had a dream to be in the industry at a very young age. He used to make stop-motion animations with his toys, then when he got bored of his toys, he moved on to his brothers, Omar and I, and that’s how I actually learned how to act.
WB: Through being Baby Bond?
MFM: Because I was a baby, we used real movies, and then made baby versions – James Bond, Baby Bond; Batman, Baby Batman – and we’d make it all at home. I mean, I’d just started learning how to walk at this point.
WB: Do these movies still exist?
MFM: Somewhere. I have a clip of one; I’ll show you. But, yeah, I always enjoyed it, ever since I can remember. It’s the first thing I ever actually did in my life. But my life took a different turn. He stuck at it, which I respect so much. He stayed in his directing, and he hasn’t moved since.
WB: That’s incredible that he was doing that when he was a kid.
MFM: It’s the only thing he’s ever done.
WB: Wow. I wish I had had that clarity. I tried a million things…
Mohammed wears Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Titanium Coal Blue 42mm, HUBLOT; Coat, BADIBANGA; sunglasses, ISHU
MFM: Yeah, but there’s also value in that; you gain experience from different forms, and that’s what happened with me. I was really into sports – from gymnastics to MMA to being a goalkeeper – and all of that helped me now in my stunt work and film work. But for a while my focus was entirely on sports. I wanted to be a football player, so I used to go to football camps – Chelsea, Manchester – I was winning trophies left, right, and center as a goalkeeper. So, I figured I should give this a serious shot. I started playing for Al Wasl Club – it’s one of the best clubs here in the UAE. From there I ended up getting trials in England.
God bless my mom, she was like my agent at the time, sending emails to all these clubs. I was super young, like 13, and then trials would come: Fulham, Crystal Palace, Barnet, Wycombe, all professional teams. Unfortunately, for a goalkeeper, my height wasn’t there; I wasn’t as tall as my brother Ali. He always told me, “If only I can give you my height because I don’t need it for directing, but you need it for goalkeeping.” So, I stopped at a young age, and I opened my first company with my Irish Emirati friend, Omran Meshar, who now owns 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu Dubai. We opened a gym called The Burn Room. It was a very cool concept, our first business. We did great, had a lot of members.
I then went to study in the UK at Regents. That experience of pushing myself out of my comfort zone, living there by myself, and starting a new community, a new network of people, it was different. I think that was my biggest lesson outside of university, because university teaches you only so much. It’s living somewhere else that teaches you the most. Also, my degree took a little longer than it should, because I was looking after the gym, going back to uni, looking after the gym, going back to uni. Long story short, I shut the gym, finished uni, and got an opportunity to work in private equity venture capital.
WB: What did you study at uni?
Mohammed wears Hublot Square Bang Unico Magic Gold 42mm, HUBLOT; Trench coat, COS; shorts, BADIBANGA
MFM: Business management. Then I started working for a Scandinavian family office in Mayfair on Grafton Street. It was an unbelievable experience. But then, all of a sudden, I got an itch; I missed playing football. At this point I’m 27, 28. Everyone’s like, this is not going to be possible, you’re not going to do it. But I read a book called The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and it made me really believe that anything is possible. Everyone said ‘you can’t’, but I’m like, ‘no, I’m going to be a professional football player’. I went back to Dubai, trained in a couple of clubs, and got signed with Al Ain at 28. Al Ain won the Asian Champions League – they were one of the best teams in Asia. Now I’m flying in private planes with them, going to Croatia and Slovenia, doing preseason and all this with the World Cup number nine of Sweden. It was very surreal, but it really made me believe in the key to living the law of attraction, right.
Then I fractured my head for a third time.
Mohammed wears Hublot Big Bang Reloaded Dark Green Ceramic 44mm, HUBLOT; Shorts, BADIBANGA
WB: Ouch!
MFM: I was a goalkeeper and got a knee to the head. Ali came and picked me up from Al Ain. I was on a loop every two minutes, repeating the same thing. So, I decided to let go of football and stop. I come from a family conglomerate – Mostafa Bin Abdullatif Investments – one of the oldest family businesses in the UAE, which started in 1924. We work across the board. And I’ve done investments and tech in London, and of course I want to always be part of the family business in some way. So I thought, why not?
WB: 1924?
MFM: Yeah, it’s a 102-year-old family business that started in pearl trading.
WB: No way? Whenever you hear about the UAE, the history is pearl trading.
MFM: Yes, we were one of the OG pearl traders. Our office in Business Bay has a museum – you see the pearl history, what we were, and what we do now.
WB: You have a museum?
MFM: We have a museum in our office. We’ll go.
WB: I would love to. So, when did the acting resurface?
MFM: Well, acting sort of happened throughout. When Ali was at The London Film School he had to make a short film to graduate. He shot a movie called Under the Sun, and I was the main character. It was the first Emirati film to win an award at the Dubai Film Festival when it existed. I was 13 when I did that. Then I shot The Worthy in 2016 – a post-apocalyptic movie directed by Ali, produced by Peter Safran – the same guys behind The Conjuring – with Image Nation Abu Dhabi. We shot that in Romania for three months. So, it was like, opportunity comes, I stop what I’m doing, shoot a movie, go back to my normal life; opportunity comes, stop, go back to my normal life – until something in me shifted. I did an open audition for Aladdin and I had very long hair at the time. This guy came up to me at a gathering in London, he said, “You look like Aladdin. There’s an audition tomorrow.” So I went.
Mohammed wears Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Orange Ceramic 42mm, HUBLOT; bomber, THOM BROWNE; top, COS; shorts, VENUM
Mohammed wears Hublot Big Bang Steel Diamonds 41mm, HUBLOT; shirt, tank top, shorts, FENDI
WB: You would have been great as Aladdin.
MFM: I think so too.
WB: Can you sing?
MFM: I’ll show you. I have an audition singing and dancing.
WB: Songs from Aladdin?
MFM: Yes.
WB: Gold.
MFM: After that I did Al Kameen, the biggest-budget Emirati film ever made. The director’s name is Pierre Morel, he directed Taken.
WB: “What I do have are a very particular set of skills…”
MFM: Exactly. And this movie, about Emirati soldiers in Yemen, we shot that here in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE, during Covid. And while I was filming that, I found out I’d been shortlisted to play Aladdin. It went to Mena Massoud, but I came close. So, I got an agent, figuring I need to take this seriously now. I was maybe 28, 29.
Then I got an audition to do a show called Hijack; that was three years ago. Unfortunately, being an Arab actor, I was getting a lot of typecast roles to play a terrorist. And I have this thing where I draw a line; I don’t want to be a terrorist. I don’t want to represent Arabs in that way. So, I decided to say no to Hijack. They’re like, “But Idris Elba!” I said no. And then she said, “Mohammed, you’re not a bad guy, just read the script and do the audition.” I said fine. I did the audition. I got the part. And you can imagine now I’m on a set with global actors, as an Emirati, on Apple TV. I didn’t know where the show was going to go. It turned out to be the number one Apple TV show in the world.
WB: Were you nervous?
Mohammed wears Hublot Classic Fusion Chronograph Titanium Sage Green 45mm, HUBLOT; Tank top, COS; trousers, FERRAGAMO
MFM: Not at all, and here’s the thing: this is why life kept throwing me back into acting. I kept not feeling nervous, and I kept loving it even more, and thinking, ‘This is where I need to be, I was born for this’.
I finished Hijack and a little while goes by and I got offered another role, but this time I’m the main character – an MMA fighter shooting between Thailand and Abu Dhabi.
WB: With Ali?
MFM: With Ali. Now we’re back together. So we started together, then I worked on a number one Apple TV show, worked with the director of Taken, and then came back to work with my brother.
WB: That’s nice, because you’ve sort of done your own thing…
MFM: Yes, absolutely. And then the next film is Dune: Part Three with Denis Villeneuve, who’s also the director of the next Bond.
WB: I’m manifesting an Emirati James Bond…
MFM: [laughs] Listen, Denis is one of the biggest directors in the world, and just him telling me, “You’re a very talented actor,” gave me so much fuel. I decided I needed to do something bigger than myself. So, I formed MFM Media.
WB: Super psyched. What is it?
Mohammed wears Hublot Big Bang Reloaded Blue Ceramic 44mm, HUBLOT; Jacket, BADIBANGA; tank top, HUGO BOSS; shorts, VENUM
MFM: I did some due diligence on what the government has to offer in terms of filmmaking, and I got invited to an iftar in Abu Dhabi with Image Nation. I met all the guys – Pierre Morel, producer Derek [Dauchy] and Ben [Ross], the CEO of Image Nation, all these guys from the industry, and Khalid Khouri from Creative Media Authority (CMA). But right now, I’m just wearing the actor hat. I’ve got a background in finance and running businesses. And [with my] experience and exposure and contacts, I should have been wearing multiple hats in the industry the whole time.
So, I’m like, ‘Guys, look, I was an actor and a stuntman here. I did Hijack there. But I’ve also done so many other things.’ And one guy pulled me to the side, Khalid Khouri from CMA, which is a government entity in Abu Dhabi that creates this structure for films to be shot here.
WB: Structure how?
MFM: So, they create all the incentives when it comes to rebates, permits, and all of the above. And Khalid says, “Mohammed, this is where I’m working, this is where we’re at, and this is what we’re doing. Why don’t you open up your own company?” So I opened the company. I divided it into three pillars. One pillar is production services, and attracting productions to Abu Dhabi by leveraging the rebate of 35 to 50 per cent. I’ve been talking to major international productions that I cannot mention, but we have a very bright future in this sector, and it’s very exciting.
The second pillar is product placement, to continue to get brands into this cinematic experience in a different way of getting your brands exposed, rather than just being on a billboard and paying more than you would than being in a film, which is also immortal – a billboard is one month. And the third pillar is talent. There are so many modeling agencies over here, but film talent for cinema is very under-served.
The company will represent talent to help them go global. I had to go to global agents to be global. I plan to change that. And then Dune: Part Three happened.
WB: Yes!
MFM: Imagine, I get a call from Najmeddin Scorpion, who worked with me on Khattaf as my stunt coordinator. He said, “Got a big project, you want to be involved?” Told me the name. I said, “Of course.” I sign up, arrive, meet the whole team. Now I’m on a set with the biggest actors in the world, the biggest film in the world. Chilling by the pool with Zendaya, Timothée Chalamet, Robert Pattinson and Jason Momoa.
WB: Dream.
MFM: So, this is where I’m at today. My brother has his company in Dubai, I have mine in Abu Dhabi; he’s the director, I’m the actor. We collaborate, we are building an industry together with all the stakeholders and people that have this similar passion, and the idea is to continue to go global, to continue to go big, to continue to raise the bar for UAE cinema, and there’s only one way from here at this point.
Mohammed wears Hublot Big Bang Reloaded Titanium Ceramic 44mm, HUBLOT; Top, COS; trousers, QASIMI
All HUBLOT watches available at HUBLOT Boutiques: The Dubai Mall; Mall of the Emirates, Dubai; Galleria Mall, Abu Dhabi.
Grab your copy of Sorbet Issue 52 // The Fashion Issue: read.sorbetmagazine.com
Starring Mohammed F. Mostafa | Creative Concept Studio Sorbet | Photographer Greg Adamski | Editorial Direction William Buckley | Styling Polina Shabelnikova | Grooming Kalina Kocemba | Lighting Assistant AJ at Bicki Boss | Watches Hublot | Location Rocky Road Boxing Club | City Dubai
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