In the red corner, a cocksure boxing star who took on the world. In the blue, his loyal trainer – the man who made him. The Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah opened on Thursday with Giant, the first biopic of Prince Naseem Hamed, the British Muslim boxing champion who held multiple featherweight titles between 1995 and 2000.
It’s a vibrant look at Hamed’s rise and his eventual fallout with his trainer, Brendan Ingle – played with total command by former James Bond star Pierce Brosnan.
For director Rowan Athale, the project feels like a dream come true. The British-Indian filmmaker grew up in Barnsley, in the north of England – not far from Sheffield, where Hamed was born and raised.
“Naz was one of my heroes growing up,” he says. “I’m mixed race … and we got called the same things at school, and we got into fights about the same thing. When Naz came on to the scene, it was a really big deal for me and my brothers. We really looked up to him.”
Hamed’s parents were originally from Yemen and the boxer’s success made him a hero across the Arabic-speaking world.
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