Actor Riz Ahmed took a brief pause from his jury duties at the Red Sea Film Festival to take part in an intriguing Q&A session this morning, where he discussed his career and what he described as the unique path he had to forge away from the UK industry to advance his career.

Ahmed told the audience in Jeddah that he found early success in the UK with roles in indie projects like Four Lions and Shifty . “These were micro-budget films with a budget of 100,000 pounds. They did well, but I was bumping up against a glass ceiling,” Ahmed said of the time.

“At that time in the UK, they liked to do a lot of period dramas. And people would say, What do we do with someone like me? It was a lot of love from a distance. People would say, We would love to work together, but I have no work fo

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