Wayfarer Lines Up Coming-of-Age Drama The Alchemy of Being Okay, Sarah Mokh's Feature Debut
Wayfarer Studios, Familiar Stranger and Amanat Films have set a new coming-of-age drama, The Alchemy of Being Okay, according to Deadline, which reported the news on 22 October 2026. "Set" means the companies have lined up the film and its cast ahead of shooting.
The film marks the feature directing debut of Sarah Mokh, who also wrote the screenplay. Her script began life under the title Diary of a Muslim Cynic and was developed through the 2024 Sundance Screenwriter's Intensive and the 2024 Sundance x Disney Artist Accelerator Fellowship. It also received support from the 2024 Gotham Week Project Market and the Hamptons International Film Festival Screenwriting Lab. The project grows out of Mokh's short film Cigarettes, which premiered at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival. Mokh is a Harvard graduate and a PhD candidate at NYU.
The cast is led by Yasmeen Fletcher as Nora, a 17-year-old. Cherien Dabis plays Amina, Nora's mother, and Ibrahim Renno plays Bassam, her father. Abubakr Ali plays Qas, a charming classmate of Nora's. Justin Chambers plays Mac, an enigmatic friend of Nora's father, and Abby Elliott plays the teacher who once encouraged Nora's writing.
Wayfarer Studios is financing the film. Producers include Ahmed Musiol Kolacek for Familiar Stranger, Abubakar Khan for Amanat Films, and Justin Baldoni and Andrew Calof for Wayfarer. Steve Sarowitz, Jamey Heath, Angela Cardon and John Logan Pierson are executive producers for Wayfarer, alongside Kyle Behling.
For sales, UTA Independent Film Group is representing the film in domestic markets. "Domestic" means the United States and Canada, so UTA will handle deals for those two territories. Sales of rights in other countries have not been announced.
No release date or distributor has been reported yet. The film's path from script to screen started with festival labs and fellowships, a route that many independent films take before a finished cut reaches audiences.
