LONDON GANGSTAH

London Gangstah is a short film about a beautiful pickpocket girl in London who steals from an Irish gangster. Her life is put in danger, and she has a very short time to escape from the pursuit of the gangsters by using the rivalry between Irish and English gangsters in London. The director was very brave in trying to tell this plot in a short film. The performance of the actress is effective. Also, the dialogues are well-written and believable. The chosen camera movements are dynamic and effective in conveying the sense of risk inside the story. The director was supported by the good work of the director of photography, Pauline Gefen. The editing is also coherent in conveying a strong sense of risk. This short film marks the directorial debut of Joseph Karimbeik, who also wrote and produced the film. Joseph Hossein Karimbeik is an English-American theatre director and actor. Joseph Karimbeik has two children: Yasamin Karimbeik and William Karimbeik. He was born in Tehran, Iran, as the son of working-class Iranian parents, Alamtag Ghandehary and Yadolah Karimbeik, a shoemaker. He was brought up in Tehran, finished high school at Darolfonon, immigrated to the UK in 1975, auditioned for drama school, and was ultimately accepted by the London Drama Centre, where he graduated as a director in 1980. Then, in 1986, he immigrated to the United States and became a naturalized U.S. citizen. Karimbeik is best known for portraying the character Raschid in Mona Lisa (1986), Colonel Hassan Ali in Half Moon Street (1986), Hossein in Brothers (2004), and Lugash’s secret policeman in Curse of the Pink Panther (1983), as well as appearing in television series such as The Cold Warrior (1984). In 2015, Karimbeik paused his theatre and acting career to pursue his career in film directing. Even if London Gangstah was produced on a low budget, we cannot deny that the short film is a good product. For all these reasons, London Gangstah won the Best Short Film category in the Berlin Indie Film Festival December 2021 competition.