Film: "Bilal: A New Breed of Hero" by Khurram H. Alavi and Ayman Jamal

I watched Bilal: A New Breed of Hero by Khurram H. Alavi and Ayman Jamal on Peacock. It is produced by Barajoun Entertainment. Alexander Kronemer & Michael Wolfe of Unity Productions Foundation are also writers on the film.

While the movie never is explicit that it is a story based on Muslims' common understandings of events surrounding Bilal ibn Rabah رضي الله عنه, a leading companion of Allah's Messenger صلى الله عليه و سلم, Muslim families familiar with these understandings will recognize elements. For example, in the duel before a battle scene, one of the participants on the side of the "New Movement" carries a sword ending in two points, as is commonly believed about `Ali ibn Abi Talib رضي الله عنه.

There are other details which don't match my understanding of the life of real Bilal. For example, I never heard he had a sister enslaved in Makka.

So families could study sources about the companion Bilal, watch the film and discuss the choices the directors made.

For viewers unfamiliar with Muslims' common understandings of these actual characters, the film portrays uplifting and inspirational messages about the equality of human beings and vices of greed and anger. It could also be a prompt for a directed discussion and study of slavery and other forms of human exploitation.

I think the choice of the word "breed" in the subtitle is unfortunate.