When director Lewis Rose called "cut" on his new film, his cast could easily have been forgiven for reaching for a meat cleaver.

The Chop is a comedy about an unemployed kosher butcher who pretends to be Muslim to get work at a halal shop.

It was one of two films to be awarded a £10,000 grant from the Pears UKJFF Short Film Fund this year, and received a further £4,600 from the public via crowdfunding site Indiegogo.

"The film's rooted in Jewish and Muslim cultures, but it's a light-hearted fish-out-of-water story so we've tried to make it quite broad," said 27-year-old Mr Rose, who also wrote the movie. "But the message in the end is that human similarities, rather than differences, shine through."

The film stars Arab-Israeli actor Amir Boutrous, who transforms from the kosher Yossi into the kaftan-wearing Yusuf. Previously seen in the Bond movie Skyfall, Mr Boutrous worked in kosher restaurants when he first came to the UK - "so he gets it", said Mr Rose.

The film will be premiered at the Jewish Film Festival in October.