Ish - Heartfelt and refreshingly Luton-based authentic portrait of a friendship between two young Muslim boys

The description of Ish as a film about "the British Muslim experience" ellicited a sigh, conjuring images of a patronising, reductive, box-ticking exercise, laden with cliches (a radicalised teen, an overbearing parent, some tussle about a headscarf...). And so, pre-emptively dejected, I sat down to a preview ... and was moved to tears by the nuanced, honest, and sensitive depiction of a relationship between two young boys. It was fresh and authentic, and (for once!) depicted how Muslim teens with very different origins but dealing with a similar reality in Britain actively engage with the geopolitical context they’re growing up in - instead of purely being subjected to it.

The film is set in Luton in the Summer. Close friends British-Palestinian Maram and British-Bangladeshi Ish are making the most of those long, lazy days on the cusp of teenagehood, still enjoying their childhood antics of building dens and picking blackberries but dealing with grief (Ish’s mother’s recently died), processing devastating world events (they watch the genocide in Gaza unfold on their phones), navigating the trials of adolescence (Maram gravitates towards older kids, occasionally getting into trouble). Things unravel after Maram is quite brutally bundled into an unmarked van and subjected to a stop and search interrogation.

The partly autobiographical film is based on visual artist and filmmaker Imran Perretta’s own experience of being stopped and searched by police aged 13. The traumatising event led him to explore the post 9/11 climate of increased Islamophobia through film.

It’s uncommon to see a British Palestinian boy on screen, especially in a film that isn’t about Palestine. Muslim leads and characters tend to understandably and generally be South Asian. The Palestinian community in Britain is relatively small. One of the film’s many strengths is to avoid flattening the "Muslim experience" and reflect the fact that these children have distinct origins and cultural backgrounds. And yet, by growing up in a similar environment, they forge another identity, shaped by the material reality of being Muslim, in Luton, in the specific post-2023 geopolitical environment. Perretta deftly brings depicts the complexity of this experience.

Interestingly, Perretta didn’t specifically seek out a Palestinian actor to portray Aram, despite references to the Gaza genocide already written in the script. The fact that it the character ends up having such a personal connection to Palestine was very simply due to the strength of actor Yahya’s performance during the casting process. A process that took six months, with 900 autioning for the role. Perretta was exremely impressed by Yahya’s audition and by the chemistry between himself and Ish: the two young actors had masterfully kept secret the fact that they in fact had been friends since nursery!

The film was released in the UK in July 2026. Highly recommended.