Team Taliban provides a provocative glimpse into the world of independent professional wrestling. Adeel Alam, a Muslim wrestler who plays a terrorist in the ring, struggles to balance his devout faith with a life-long passion for wrestling. The result is a powerful documentary that explores the impact of The War on Terror in American culture through the unique lens of professional wrestling.
“Those who got a kick out of watching the Ram’s faux rivalry with the Ayatollah in The Wrestler are hereby advised—nay, ordered—to check out Benjamin Kegan’s documentary about Adeel Alam, a devout Muslim-American pro wrestler who inhabits the role of a terrorist in the ring. In Kegan’s hands, what might have been an exercise in snark becomes, instead, an incisive look at how Alam navigates his character through the weird make-believe world of pro wrestling in a post-9/11 America.”
-Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine
Wrestling as half of the “Team Taliban” duo, Adeel discovered his character’s charged political nature incited immediate and passionate reactions from the crowd––the goal of any successful pro-wrestler. However, as a Muslim-American himself, Adeel has to contend with the images and stereotypes his character enacts. He certainly gets the audience’s attention, but is the image he is placing in the spotlight the one he thinks the world should see?
Including bonus extended interviews with Adeel's Brother, Pro Wrestler "The Mississippi Madman" and Fans of the Sport!
