The tug of home, the lure of the street

Daniel Nelson

It’s street versus home in Ish, a coming of age story about a Muslim British Asian in the Bedfordshire town of Luton.

Ish’s mother has died and he has formed a lovely friendship with Maram, a lad Ish’s family calls “the Palestinian boy”.

Maram is older, bigger and bolder — and angrier, more experienced and more volatile. But he is tender towards Ish and they josh each other, playfight and hang out.

Stormclouds are heading their way, however. As they head home from their lair in the neighbourhood woods, Ish sees a police spotter van behind them and legs it. Maram is nabbed, pushed into the vehicle for an unjustified stop and search, given a scare and turfed out. He’s shaken and stirred, mortified and feeling betrayed by his equally mortified friend.

Or rather, former friend, because a bond has been broken.

From then on the film focuses on Ish, angry with himself and with Maram’s rejection, awkward at home with his hard-working dad, sophisticated sister and grandmother. 

Despite Maram’s cold-shoulder, his group encourages Ish to stick around and he is in danger of being pulled into the excitement of shoplifting and other anti-social activities.

He’s at a crossroads, with his family tugging him back.

It’s simply told, in black and white, with a poetic quality, but it handles complex ideas deftly.

* Luton is often seen as a dull satellite town, but in an interview available on YouTube director Imran Perretta defends it as “diverse and such a cool place, so interesting”. He’s really put it, and himself, on the map.