Twelve year old best friends, Ish (Farhan Hasnat) and Maram (Yahya Kitana) spend days together in mostly childish pursuits. But contact with a group of older lads and a traumatic police stop and search changes their lives and puts a strain on their friendship.
Shot in black-and-white, this is a beautiful looking film. Director Imran Perretta and cinematographer Jermaine Canute Edwards really capture the urban decay of Luton. A lot of Perretta and Enda Walsh’s story features the boys’ humdrum lives which makes the two brushes with the law all the more shocking.
Hasnat is excellent, as is Joy Crookes as his sister trying to keep the family together in the wake of their mother’s death. Kitana’s casting works less well, though. He looks about five years older than his character and some of his dialogue was unintelligible to this old white guy.
That is a small criticism of this very vital film that felt like an honest depiction of young friendship, peer pressures and racial stereotyping.
Rating: 8 out of 10