The Hollywood Reporter
By Lily Ford
Wednesday August 7, 2024
Filming is underway in London for True Brit Entertainment’s biopic on Ali, who was recognized as one of TIME magazine’s 2023 Women of the Year.
Filming is underway in London on In the Shadows, starring BAFTA-winning actor Jasmine Jobson in the biopic about female boxing champion Ramla Ali.
Jobson recently won big at the television awards for her role in Top Boy. She plays Ali, a woman who secretly pursued her dream to become the first Somali-British professional boxing champion.
Alongside Jobson stars Finn Cole (Peaky Blinders, Last Breath) as her husband, Richard Moore, while Gershwyn Eustache Jr (Andor, Small Axe, Fortitude) plays Ali’s boxing coach. The real-life couple of Ali and Moore serve as executive producers.
“At its heart, In the Shadows is a unique love story woven into a rich family drama that showcases the challenges and triumphs of Ramla and Richard, a mixed-race couple,” a plot synopsis reads. “As they navigate racial and cultural barriers, their shared strength and mutual support sets them apart as role models for a new generation.”
“It’s a complete honor to take on the role of Ramla and to be trusted to help share her incredible story,” said Jobson. “Not only to celebrate her talent, strength, and determination as a boundary-breaking athlete – but also as an incredibly inspirational Somali woman who has overcome huge adversity. Her experience of arriving in the U.K. as a refugee is important and has the power to educate and empower people at a time of so much division. I’m thrilled to get started.”
Ali said of Jobson’s talent: “I, along with everyone else, fell in love with Jasmine after seeing her incredible performance as Jaq in Top Boy. She understands more than anyone the true experience of growing up in London and fighting for yourself and your place in this world. She brings with her an incredible amount of authenticity, rawness, and real emotion that can’t be taught. I couldn’t be more excited to see her embody me on the screen.”
Ali was the first boxer, male or female, to represent Somalia at the 2020 Olympic Games and won the first-ever professional female boxing match in Saudi Arabia. In 2023, she clinched her first professional IBF intercontinental title at Super bantamweight at Madison Square Garden, and was later recognized as one of TIME magazine’s 2023 Women of the Year.
In the Shadows is directed by Emmy Award and three-time BAFTA-winning documentary filmmaker Anthony Wonke (Dettori, Syria: Children on the Frontline, Ronaldo) who makes his narrative fiction film debut. Its screenplay is written by Ursula Rani Sarma (Bodkin, Delicious).
The film is executive produced by Zygi Kamasa for True Brit Entertainment, Will Clarke, Andy Mayson and Mike Runagall for Altitude, Anushka Shah for Civic Studios, Richard Fearn and Jane Reid Fearn at Affine Films, Natasha Mudhar for The World We Want Studios, Anne Sheehan, Ali and Moore.
The film will release in 2025 in theaters across the U.K. and Ireland, with Altitude handling international sales.
