Writer-director duo Ramla Ali and Richard A Moore have wrapped principal photography on their debut feature, Not Like Us, an independently financed British romantic comedy shot on location in East London, as Deadline reports.

Set within London's Somali-British community, Not Like Us centres on Amina Hassan, a forty-something pharmacist and single mother who has carefully built a successful business and a stable life for herself and her family. Her carefully maintained routine is disrupted when she falls in love with Edmund Clarke, a Jamaican man whose arrival forces her to confront deeply rooted expectations surrounding family, culture and identity. As if navigating a new relationship were not challenging enough, Amina also finds herself under pressure from three outspoken community aunties – Hawa, Safia and Maryam – who have taken it upon themselves to find her a husband, despite their own complicated marriages.

The cast is led by Canadian actress and producer Sabrina Elba (Three Thousand Years of Longing, Playdate) as Amina Hassan, alongside British actor and rapper Ashley Thomas (Shank, Brotherhood) as Edmund Clarke. Sofia Oxenham (series Extraordinary, A Very Royal Scandal) also stars in the film.

Described by its filmmakers as "a story about love, desire and the right to choose your own happiness, told entirely from within the community it depicts", Ali and Moore co-wrote and co-directed the project, drawing on their own experiences as an intercultural couple. Ali, who was born in Mogadishu and raised in East London, is a former Olympic boxer whose life will be depicted in the forthcoming biopic In the Shadows. Moore has worked across film and television, and Not Like Us marks the pair's feature directorial debut, following their previous collaborations on short-form projects.

The feature was independently financed, with the filmmakers citing the difficulties of working within the British funding system. Production was handled by Sunita Mirchandani Hyams and Luke Hyams for Pangaea Group. Richard Fearn serves as executive producer for Affine Films, alongside Andrew Conrad and Gina Carter for 22 Summers and Ali and Moore for 786 Films. Not Like Us has now entered post-production and is aiming for a worldwide release in 2027.