Acclaimed Cinematographer Malik Hassan Sayeed Revives Feature Film Career After 25-Year Hiatus

In a significant development for the film industry, acclaimed cinematographer Malik Hassan Sayeed is returning to feature films after a 25-year break. Sayeed, widely recognized as one of the most innovative directors of photography in the 1990s, has collaborated with director Luca Guadagnino on the new psychodrama "After the Hunt."

Sayeed's decision to work with Guadagnino, a self-proclaimed disciple of his previous film "Clockers," was driven by a shared visual language. The two filmmakers bonded over their mutual admiration for the works of Ingmar Bergman, Gordon Willis, and Alfred Hitchcock, and sought to incorporate these influences into the imagery of "After the Hunt."

"The commercial we worked on together was specifically Hitchcock-influenced, and I could see how nuanced he was at understanding Hitchcock's mise en scène," Sayeed explained. "Bergman and Sven Nykvist's work in the 1960s and early 1970s was the primary acknowledged influence on 'After the Hunt,' with a focus on faces, emotional ambiguity, and a sense of emotional voyeurism."

Sayeed also aimed to reconcile Bergman and Nykvist's style with the distinctive cinematography of Gordon Willis, whom he has long considered a "north star." The result is a film that Sayeed hopes will capture the essence of that bygone era while still feeling fresh and contemporary.