SCREENING FROM FRIDAY JULY 31st

Set in Luton’s British Muslim community, Imran Perretta’s striking debut, co-written by Enda Walsh, feature follows twelve-year-old friends Ish (Farhan Hasnat) and Maram (Yahya Kitani) as their close bond is fractured by a traumatic police stop-and-search. Shot in evocative black and white, the film explores grief, friendship and the uneasy transition from childhood to adolescence against a backdrop of surveillance and racial profiling. Combining social realism with lyrical visual storytelling, Ish is a compassionate and deeply felt coming-of-age drama that bears comparison to the work of Shane Meadows.

Notes by David O’Mahony