There’s a real melting pot feel to the London culture you create in "Room To Rent" isn’t there?

Egypt is quite kitsch, and parts of London are very kitsch. I thought it would be a good idea to bring the two cultures together, to see a night-club where a Marilyn Monroe lookalike is performing, and afterwards going to an Arab coffee shop where the tone’s the same, the colour is the same. I did a film before, and it was quite hard, grey and people cried. I felt that audiences deserved more than that.

Does the struggle the central character has to prove himself have a parallel in your own life?

It has a similarity for me, it’s the struggle to prove yourself and say "Hey I’m a film maker, forget my colour, forget my country, I just make films". Sometimes it’s hard for people to listen to that, because they think if you’re a film maker from the Third World you ought to make sad films, about sad people and about hunger. I found some people were shocked that I’d made a comedy. How dare I? The struggle is to be part of this new society. I’m here, I’m living here and I want to be part of that without feeling boxed or pigeonholed.

Are there any flatmates from Hell that you can recall, but didn’t include?

They’re not really flatmates from Hell in the film, they’re just from different cultures. You come up with ideas about the west, and about sexuality and women and about everything, then suddenly you confront this other culture and it’s like a fight between the two things. Every culture looks at another culture in terms of stereotype, but then you start to relax and understand other people, you make peace with yourself and with others and you realise we’re all the same, we just have different cultural backgrounds. I was conscious about choosing the kind of characters I included in the film because it’s about life and about Ali discovering different things about sexuality and love.

"Room For Rent" is out in UK cinemas on Friday 22nd June 2001.

Read an interview with Juliette Lewis one of the stars of the film and visit the official website.