Academy Award nominee and BAFTA winner Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips) stars in Magan’s Fare, a new short drama from filmmakers Dana White and Chris Knoblock that shines a light on the little-discussed practice of patient dumping. Inspired by real-life accounts, the film follows Magan (Abdi), a ride-share driver who finds himself facing an unexpected moral dilemma when an elderly passenger, Jorani (Alexis Rhee), is refused entry to her nursing facility after her bed has been given away. What begins as an ordinary journey quickly becomes an exploration of ageing, displacement, institutional neglect and the responsibility we have towards one another. Having previously explored similar themes in Involuntary, White and Knoblock approach the subject through the unlikely connection between two strangers, asking how far we should go to help someone when the systems designed to protect them have failed. With Magan’s Fare now long-listed for the Academy Awards and a feature-length adaptation in development, I spoke to the filmmakers about the inspiration behind the project, their approach to portraying dementia, working with Barkhad Abdi and the importance of compassion in an increasingly disconnected world.
Was there a specific event or story that initially inspired you to make a film about this subject?
Dana White: It’s interesting because it was quite a long process for us to arrive at this story. I think it really began when my mum became very ill. I was her full-time caregiver, while Chris was keeping us afloat during that time. We had a wonderful care team, and my mum was very fortunate, but I would hear all these horror stories about people who weren’t receiving the same level of care.
After my mum passed away, we made a film called Turning Blue, which was about her death. I think that was the beginning of our interest in telling stories about older adults.
When we were making Turning Blue, the pandemic hit. I remember one day, while we were all stuck inside, hearing somebody say, “Only older people die of COVID.” I remember thinking, what does “only” mean? Are we suggesting that older people’s lives are somehow less important than younger people’s? That really upset me.
Around the same time, I started hearing about something called patient dumping. I had never even heard of it before. Everything seemed to coincide, and we began to recognise this systemic issue of ageism, particularly in the United States, and how older adults aren’t always considered or treated with the same attention as younger people.
When we heard about patient dumping, we knew we had to do something about it. Our first film exploring the subject was Involuntary, starring Jack McGee. The research process was incredibly difficult because we realised just how frequently this happens and how horrific some of these cases are.
We were fortunate to speak to some wonderful people who work in this area and advocate for older adults. While making Involuntary, which explores the experience from the perspective of a patient living with dementia, we started thinking about making another film on the same subject, but from the perspective of someone who has to make a moral decision about whether or not to help that person. That’s where the idea for a ride-share driver came from, and the story developed from there.
“We can always do better. We can be a little kinder, more compassionate and more empathetic towards the people around us.”
Dana White
Did you ever consider approaching it as a documentary, or was it always going to be a fictional story told from the opposite perspective?
Dana White: It was always going to be fictional, really. Starting with Involuntary, there isn’t much existing footage of patient dumping, particularly in nursing facilities and emergency rooms. But we also felt it would be more powerful to bring audiences inside the world of these people through a fictional narrative. We wanted them to develop a deeper understanding of the circumstances these individuals find themselves in.
Chris Knoblock: Dana and I are narrative filmmakers. That’s what we do. We liked the idea of being able to develop these characters and shape the story in a way that would take the audience on a particular journey. Being able to sculpt the narrative and decide how we wanted everything to evolve was really important to us.
Even though the film has a relatively short runtime, you learn so much about both characters. There’s a real sense of history and backstory, and they’re both displaced in different ways. Was that connection between them always part of the plan?
Dana White: Absolutely. We built the story organically. When we first came up with the idea, we knew we wanted a ride-share driver and an older adult, and we decided the older character would be a woman.
Then Chris said, “We have to get Barkhad Abdi.” We loved his work, so we decided to write the character of Magan specifically around him.
We didn’t know Barkhad personally, but we immersed ourselves in everything he had done. When I was writing the screenplay, I thought about his mannerisms, his speaking patterns and the way he carries himself. Because Barkhad is Somali-American, we also knew we wanted to incorporate that into Magan’s background.
From there, we developed Jorani’s character around her own experiences of trauma. We wanted these two people to come from different countries, with very different histories, but to have arrived in the United States in search of a better life. There’s something particularly heartbreaking about Jorani ultimately being discarded by the very place she hoped would provide her with safety and comfort.
Chris Knoblock: It’s worth emphasising that we wrote the film for Barkhad without knowing whether he would actually come on board. We loved his performances and hoped that when he read the screenplay, he would recognise himself in the character. Fortunately, he did. It was a huge relief!
In your previous film, Involuntary, you explored dementia from the perspective of the patient. Approaching Jorani’s character in Magan’s Fare, did you have to reconsider how you portrayed dementia, given that she’s at a different stage of the condition?
Chris Knoblock: We approached it slightly differently. We talked about it quite a lot during rehearsals because Jorani is at an earlier stage, where something isn’t quite right. She’s in and out of moments of clarity, whereas the character in Involuntary is much further along in his dementia.
There’s also a combination of past trauma and the early stages of dementia and Alzheimer’s coming into play, all while she’s experiencing a new trauma: being told that she can no longer stay in the place she considers home. That situation brings up a lot of things for her and contributes to those moments when she isn’t as lucid.
Alexis Rhee is such a wonderful actress. She’s incredibly thoughtful in her approach, and we spent a lot of time discussing how we wanted those experiences to come across. She did a beautiful job.
Was there a significant difference in your approach to filmmaking between Involuntary, which explores patient dumping from the patient’s perspective, and Magan’s Fare, which focuses on the person who has to decide whether to help?
Chris Knoblock: Involuntary is, in many respects, a very dark film. It’s uncomfortable to watch, and we wanted to explore the idea of a human being being treated as disposable, as someone who can simply be thrown away.
With Magan’s Fare, we wanted to explore how we compartmentalise compassion. We have empathy for the people within our immediate circles, but what happens when someone falls outside of that circle? How does that affect us, and how do we respond?
Magan is a ride-share driver, and Jorani is simply another passenger. He cares about her situation, but at the same time, she’s a stranger. We wanted to explore how people react when they’re confronted with that kind of responsibility. Ultimately, the film is a study of empathy, compassion and our responsibility towards one another.
Dana White: We were very clear when making Involuntary that we wanted it to be a difficult film. It’s only 13 minutes long, roughly half the length of Magan’s Fare, but we knew the subject was so serious that we needed to give it a voice. We didn’t want to let the audience off the hook at the end.
With Magan’s Fare, we’re exploring the same subject, but there’s an additional layer: the relationship between these two people and how their connection exists within this much larger systemic problem. How do kindness and compassion fit into that?
That became an incredibly important part of the writing, directing and editing processes. We spent a lot of time building the relationship between Magan and Jorani, so although the films share similar themes, our approaches were quite different.
I think that’s particularly interesting because Magan is also dealing with his own struggles. We hear the phone calls with his family, understand the pressures he’s under and see that he’s trying to earn money for them, particularly during the holiday period. Yet he still feels an obligation to help Jorani, despite the fact that the care system designed to support her has failed her. It really highlights how one individual can sometimes show more compassion than an entire institution.
Dana White: That’s right. I was recently speaking to a lawyer who works with these kinds of cases. He had seen the trailer for Magan’s Fare and told me, “I see this every day.” It’s incredibly sad.
When we were making Involuntary, I spoke to Sam Brooks, who gave us a tremendous amount of advice because this is the work he does. He’s a legal advocate for people who have experienced these situations. I asked him whether I had gone too far with the story, and he said, “Dana, you couldn’t go far enough.”
It happens so frequently that he felt it was important for us to bring attention to the subject. We’ve been screening the film at festivals, and people often come up to us afterwards saying they had absolutely no idea this was happening.
Our hope is that people will watch the film, become more aware of the issue and start having conversations about how we can do better.
“We have empathy for the people within our immediate circles, but what happens when someone falls outside of that circle?”
Chris Knoblock
When Magan and Jorani arrive at the church, it feels almost as though the building offers them a moment of protection from everything happening outside. There’s a real sense of peace and stillness. Was that always where you intended to end the film?
Chris Knoblock: Yes, we always wanted the film to end in some kind of place of worship. I think the silence, both visually and in the environment, is really important because it gives Magan the space to make his decision.
Any decision like that should happen in a place of silence within yourself. We wanted to externalise that feeling through the film.
We worked very hard on creating that stillness, not only visually but also through the sound design. That was particularly important to us.
You’ve mentioned that you’re developing Magan’s Fare into a feature-length film. Are there particular elements of the short that you didn’t have time to explore that you’re excited to expand upon?
Dana White: There are quite a few things, actually. Alexis Rhee isn’t only a brilliant actress, she’s also a very accomplished classical violinist. That’s something we’re already incorporating into the feature screenplay as part of Jorani’s backstory.
We’ll also get to meet more of Magan’s family. In the short, you hear about his wife and mother, who are at odds with one another over something that’s happening, but we never really get to meet them. In the feature, we’ll explore that family dynamic in much greater detail.
There’s also the fact that Magan is studying for an exam. As it turns out, the exam is actually happening on the same day as the events of the film. We don’t want to give too much away, but there’s a lot more to explore.
Chris Knoblock: That’s one of the challenges of making a short film. We alluded to certain things, and I’m not sure everyone will necessarily pick up on all of them, but the feature will allow us to expand those elements and give them much more room to develop.
If there were one key message you’d want audiences to take away from Magan’s Fare, what would it be? Beyond raising awareness of patient dumping, is there anything you’d particularly like people to reflect on or take into their own lives?
Dana White: Watch it! We want as many people as possible to see this film.
We actually did an interview with Barkhad a few months ago, and I think he put it best when someone asked him that very question. He said, “We can do better.”
I think that’s a beautiful way of looking at it. It’s not about making everyone feel terrible about themselves or what they’re doing. It’s about recognising that we can always do better. We can be a little kinder, more compassionate and more empathetic towards the people around us.
If the film can make somebody leave and think a little differently about how they treat other people, then we’ve achieved part of what we set out to do.
Chris Knoblock: I think even one moment of kindness can genuinely change someone’s life. That’s what the film is about.
Finally, the film has been long-listed for the Academy Awards. Is that something you’re trying not to think too far ahead about, or is it an exciting prospect at the moment?
Dana White: We’re thinking about it every day! December 15th, December 15th, December 15th!
Chris Knoblock: We’re very excited. Obviously, there are so many wonderful films out there, so we’ll see what happens. We’re doing everything we can and hoping for the best.
We’re also really excited to be returning to London for HollyShorts UK. We’ve apparently developed a bit of a rain dance, so we’re looking forward to coming back!
Dana White: We’ll be back in London in November, which is exciting
