WAR, DRAMA, RELIGION, ROMANCE, ACTION

Rassul is an Afghan American neer-do-well to women who is sent to the Army to shape up his behavior. Rassul is captured by the Taliban and tortured. Through the grace of his father's reputation, a heroic soldier in the Russian war, Rassul is shown secret small kindnesses to be kept alive. Rassul finds love and Islam under the threat of being beheaded by a fearsome warlord before he is freed.

FAIR

THIRD PERSON

Authors Writing Style: FAIR

Characterization: FAIR

Commerciality: GOOD

Franchise Potential: FAIR

Pace: FAIR

Premise: FAIR

Structure: FAIR

Theme: FAIR

Yes the profile definitely is accurate the story. The development pitch gets cut off so it might be better to shorten the pitch to less summary in the pitch and then add more thematic reasons the story is marketable to that section.

Rassul is very deplorable in the beginning so it is almost rooting for his demise before the slow transition to him being worth saving. The politics of the Taliban are also compelling.

It is very to find Rassul likeable and have emotional investment in his character after he date rapes a girl without remorse. While he goes through a transformation, his conflicted past seems to become simplified to learning survival and respect but there is no resolution for his victim and Fatima is left unaware what she is getting involved with.

THE STORY RELIES A LITTLE BIT ON SPECIAL EFFECTS

The hook is that Rassul is a troubled soldier who gets taken hostage and will be beheaded by the Taliban if he doesn't comply. The girl he falls in ove with is also the object of affection of his captor.

This could potentially have a large fanbase with a different more forgivable crime to create Rassul's unlikability at the beginning. Taking a girl's "honor" is far different than actually assaulting her. By making Rassul conflicted but redeemable, his arc will have better emotional investment as the protagonist to define the popularity of the story.

Unless there is a lot of character work done in Rassul's transformation either in religion or in gender politics, then this is unlikely to have awards potential due to its simplified ending.

MEDIUM BUDGET

MANCHESTER BY THE SEA, DEVIL'S DOUBLE, CAPTAIN PHILLIPS, ZERO DARK THIRTY

The originality stems from Rassul's situation of being hostage in love with his captor's crush during the War in Afghanistan. Showing Rassul's inner conflict and creating inner conflicts and transformations for the captor and Fatima as well will make their love triangle seem more realistic and nuanced.

Rassul is redeemed to be self-sacrificing, loyal and brave although he starts out as skeezy and selfish. Fatima is kind hearted and also brave. Abdulmalik is naive but agressive and reverential of Islam.

The setting and later conflict after the capture are compelling but the first part of the story may be too off putting to allow full emotional investment in the protagonist's transformation. Making the protagonist less problematic and triggering in their crime could still allow for them to have to join the army as per his family's orders but also make him more supportable.

Film: Streaming, Indie, Studio

WORK IN PROGRESS

While the story has many positive points, it has room for improvement (see possible paths below). If you can't change the story at this point, my suggestion is using your notes as a guide to highlight the best aspects of it when taking the next steps, either putting a pitch page together, a treatment, or a presentation.

Creating a more palatable crime and emotional arc for Rassul to learn respect would help increase emotional investment in his release and transformation. Adjusting the structure at the beginning to lead more quickly into the capture so as to initiate the inner conflict's actual transformation will also help adjust the pacing and focus on the main conflict.