DIVINE POISON is my second film, in which we follow a young man’s journey into young adulthood and his spiritual transformation and finding God in the form of love – the ultimate love. According to the New Testament, “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” Unfortunately, however, Abrahamic religions have largely emphasized “fear” instead of “love” in our relationship with God, teaching us to fear God rather than love Him. In my first film YURT, which drew on my own experiences as a young boy growing up in an Islamic dormitory, I focused on the fear used to teach religious doctrines to children. In my second film, I try to approach the idea of feeling God through another way, the way of love. I once read that one must truly lose themselves in order to find their way. Sadly, I was never given the chance to be lost. I was always told what to do, how to feel, what to like. Being consistently and deliberately instilled with fear through Islamic doctrines; I abided by them dutifully until films came to my rescue. Making movies became my way of getting lost so that I could find myself. Have I been found? I don’t know. Have I gotten lost? Many times. It’s been and is still is a journey to myself amongst many ups and downs, but a journey that started much later in life. This film is my hope to find God through love rather than fear; though the lens of freespirited youth that was sacrificed to my dormitory days.