Imran Perretta’s Ish Is a Tender, Politically Charged Debut Shot Entirely in Black and White

Ish, titled after the film’s young protagonist Ishmal, is a coming of age story taking aim at a pair of friends growing up in Luton. The film deals with the issues of the modern day such as overseas conflict and racially motivated policing, while also creating a delicate portrayal of youth and the experience of growing up and growing apart. Ish premiered at the Venice Film Festival last August in the festival’s Critic’s Week, in which it won the audience award.

At the centre, there are a pair of performances that give the film its dramatic core, its comedic levity and its emotional fragility. This is a lot to ask from a performer, let alone the young men that make up this film, but Farhan Hasnat as the titular Ish and Yahya Kitana as Maram seem well up for the task. From the off, this pair of performances seem natural, even documentarian to an extent as they talk like boys talk and do things that boys do, but as the narrative develops and they’re forced to experience the inevitabilities of their lives, the pair do excellent jobs at handling the drama with a weight and nuance. For a majority of the film’s tight 89 minute runtime, we’re right there with Hasnat’s Ish, who gives off just the right amounts of contrasting innocence and wits to create a charming young protagonist. Kitana does a solid job at walking the line of charismatic friend and bad influence in Ish’s life. Farhan Hasnat is also surrounded by a group of supporting roles such as Avin Shah as Ish’s father, Sudha Bhuchar as Ish’s grandmother and musician Joy Crookes as Ish’s sister, who all do well to create a softer, more emotional side to Ish’s story.

The film is also visually unique, taking a page out of Matthieu Kassowitz’s 1995 classic La Haine as Perretta decides to set this rough around the edges story of youth in a black and white world. The monochromatic cinematography created by Director of Photography Jermaine Canute Edwards is excellent in creating a tender beauty even in the mundane settings some of the scenes take place in. Luton is at the heart of this film and the camera work is utilised very well to not only highlight the edges to the area’s appearance but also the beauty.

Perretta uses politics as another concept that children are becoming more and more privy to at an earlier age. Ish is also a politically overt film. Although it can be argued that all cinema is in and of itself a combination of creativity and politics, Ish makes it clear that there is a political theme pulsating throughout the entire film. For a start, the film surrounds the lives of two young brown men and how they must deal with growing up in a Britain where the police are predatory. Perretta makes the decision to never really show the police head on, instead showcasing them through grainy roaming police car footage and cutting around their several appearances throughout the film to create the idea of the police as a threatening force constantly on the look out for our young protagonists. Also throughout Ish are several references, both audibly and visually, to the conflict between Palestine and Israel. Using this real life conflict in conjunction with the internal conflict Ish is living through helps to amount the tension within the film, while also placing a spotlight on the world we ourselves live in.

Ish is an effective debut feature by Imran Perretta which feels like a unison between Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me and the previously mentioned La Haine. Ish keeps an edge to the lives of its growing protagonists and doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities of growing up in the circumstances they find themselves in. Perretta uses his directorial voice to blend a cinematic vision with a political outcry that is sufficiently boosted by the naturalism of a young and likable cast and the images created by Edwards to create a bittersweet portrait of contemporary British youth.

Ish is the kind of unassuming British debut that sneaks up on you long after the lights come up, and EyeOnLondon would point anyone tired of glossy franchise cinema straight towards it this week.

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[Image Credit | IMDB]

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