‘Dough’ film about Jewish baker and Muslim helper brings comedy to culture clash

The premise sounds like high-concept Hollywood: Nat, an old Jewish baker (Jonathan Pryce), employs his African cleaning lady’s son, a young Muslim, to work for him at his failing London bakery. The teenage Ayyash (Jerome Holder), a part-time pot dealer, then begins selling cannabis-flavored bread to Nat’s customers, who are soon flocking the establishment like never before — the reason, of course, unbeknownst to Nat.

It’s a jocular one-line idea, but “Dough,” from British director John Goldschmidt, tackles the serious topics of drug policy, immigration and Jewish-Muslim relations in modern Europe with a rather knowing sense of humor while not shrinking from their very real analogues in contemporary life.

Mr. Goldschmidt said he was initially approached by Jez Freedman, a young graduate of Westminster University’s screenwriting course seeking entree into the film biz. Mr. Goldschmidt told his young charge he was looking for a good script, and if the young scribe had an idea, he would listen.

“So four months later, he phones me up and says ’Look, I’ve got an idea,’” Mr. Goldschmidt told The Washington Times. Mr. Freedman and a friend of his from synagogue, Jonathan Benson, pitched the idea of an the baker whose Jewish customers have largely fled the area as the neighborhood gentrifies and becomes poorer and more immigrant-heavy. The cannabis “accidentally gets into the bread” and the bakery starts to do well.

Mr. Freedman and Mr. Benson wrote the script, with Mr. Goldschmidt tweaking the idea so that instead of Ayyash being from the Middle East — an idea Mr. Goldschmidt felt was perhaps too cliche and too politically charged — the young man instead be a refugee from the troubled region of Darfur.

Mr. Goldschmidt determined that it would be paramount to shoot the film with an English cast rather than translate it to another culture. For Nat, the baker clinging to the old neighborhood, Mr. Goldschmidt’s first choice was Mr. Pryce, a longtime veteran of stage and screen.

Mr. Holder, on the other hand, was entirely new on the scene. Mr. Goldschmidt believes audiences will be thankful they “discovered” Mr. Holder before the wider movie world.

“This is a film with a celebrated stage actor and a complete unknown co-lead as opposed to two sexy thirtysomething actors [who are] very fashionable at the moment,” Mr. Goldschmidt said in defense of his casting, adding he felt the film itself “should be the star.”

“What was really interesting is that Jonathan Pryce and Jerome Holder developed a kind of father-son relationship — the older, experienced actor and the first-time actor — and that mirrors exactly the kind of arc of” Nat and Ayyash in the story, Mr. Goldschmidt said of his leads. “The father [Nat] didn’t have the son he wanted, the boy doesn’t have a father, and they end up having the relationship that they both need. And that’s exactly what happened on the set” for the two actors, he said.

“I like to think that as people get to know one another, they can be friends,” the director said. “This was a story about the most unlikely of friends — an old white guy and a young black boy, a Muslim and a Jew — but it was a buddy movie.”

However, even though the dynamic between Nat and Ayyash is meant to be taken somewhat as a lighthearted clash of opposites, their respective religions and lifestyles — namely, Ayyash’s baking marijuana into Nat’s products — leads to some rather tense scenes between the two actors later in the film. Indeed, the offbeat comedy of “Dough” touches on issues that are all hot in the news given Islamic terror attacks throughout Europe and election year anti-immigration diatribes in the United States.

While those extra-textual elements are indeed present, Mr. Goldschmidt impresses that “Dough” is, first and foremost, entertainment.

“It seemed to me a kind of fairy tale for grownups that could have a comedic touch and yet deal with issues, but at the same time not be heavy-handed,” he said. “We are in the entertainment business. And the more people sense that we’re living in dark times, the more [imperative to sate people’s] desire to leave the cinema with a smile. That’s our job.”

Already a hit on the festival circuit and in Europe, Mr. Goldschmidt hopes that his culture-clash comedy will find an audience in the U.S., which he believes is a proving ground for movies to then be seen around the world.

“What tends to work in the U.S. tends to work everywhere else,” the English director said. “So I’m pleased that the film is providing some contrast, some hope, some entertainment for people.”

“Dough” opens in the District Friday.