Imran Perretta: The Five Youth Culture Classics That Shaped Me

Imran Perretta on the British coming-of-age films that informed his beguiling feature debut, Ish

Imran Perretta’s work is unapologetically political. “There’s very often a reticence in film to refer to geopolitical events because they date it,” he explains. “I had the opposite approach. You should absolutely make a portrait of a moment in time.” An acclaimed multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker, his moving image work has explored the marginalisation of diasporic communities and the aftermath of the war on terror for young adults in the UK. Turning towards the present day, his debut feature Ish explores how these recurring themes – freshly emboldened by the war on Gaza and increasing state surveillance – are impacting the next generation of British youth.

Perretta chose these specific political events to make a universal point about adolescence. “There’s a moment when the adult world makes itself known to you,” he says of his time growing up in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. “Very often it’s when you’re too young.” The rise of social media has only exacerbated these issues for today’s kids. “In my day you could turn that stuff off,” he tells me. “I wanted to show how the youth of today interact with those images and sounds. With social media there’s no escape. It’s a really unnatural and violent way to encounter anything, let alone incredibly traumatic imagery.”

The result is an arresting yet visually and sonically remarkable film that follows best friends Ish and Maram (untrained actors and real-life best friends Farhan Hasnat and Yahya Kitana) as they move through friendship, loss and political tension in their hometown of Luton. Their lives are imbued with a monumental grandeur rarely applied to British regional towns.

In the spirit of his debut feature, screening nationwide as part of BFI Fan’s youth culture season Rip It Up, Perretta describes five of his favourite British coming-of-age films. He is, however, acutely aware of the dearth of south Asian representation in the genre. “It’s quite sad to reflect on films that have influenced you and realise that a lot of them aren’t actually about your own people.” He hopes that Ish can begin to redress the imbalance. “I hope it becomes a document of a moment in time for our kids and our community, which haven’t been represented in this style very often, if at all.”

The Selfish Giant (2013)

“I watched [Clio Barnard’s] The Selfish Giant when it came out and I was in art school. I’m still blown away by it. It feels like a different way to do social realism – a poetic, lyrical way of approaching people’s reality in the north of England. It’s such a soulful film with such a big heart, but it’s still very punchy politically. It’s also really interesting sonically, in how they create an ever-present background hum that gives a slight ominousness all the way through the film, which we paralleled in Ish. It’s just masterful. I’m really lucky that Clio is a mentor of mine now. I owe her a debt of gratitude for making this film because seeing the friendship on screen between Arbor and Swifty made me think Ish and Maram could be like them.”

A Room for Romeo Brass (1999)

“One of the first scenes of Shane Meadows' A Room for Romeo Brass has always stuck with me, where the two best friends go into the gaffer’s shop and they buy fish and chips. It’s really simple, there’s nothing to it, but it’s extraordinary how real it feels. It doesn’t advance the narrative but it’s one of those scenes that are all about texture and showing the world these boys inhabit as it is. My reaction was I need to figure out how to do that. That’s the thing that’s so striking about it and why it stuck out – the type of performances that Shane Meadows gets out of first-time actors was super inspiring. I’d never seen that before; it’s so real. I hope the performances in Ish do something similar. We wanted to make sure we designed an environment where we got out of the actors’ way.”

Kes (1969)

“It’s really cheesy, but [Ken Loach's] Kes. I have to big up Kes. And actually, the poster for Ish is a real homage to Kes. It’s the original social realist coming-of-age film, and what I admire about Ken Loach more generally is the lifelong commitment he’s made to political cinema. That’s what I want to do. Even if what he’s making isn’t fashionable at a given time, he doggedly sticks to what he wants to do. It’s about showing these textured portrayals of life in the UK and Kes is the standout in his canon. It’s an amazing film.”

Ratcatcher (1999)

“Of all of these, [Lynne Ramsay's] Ratcatcher is the one that speaks to me the most on a formal level. There’s a looseness to what Ramsay is doing but it’s also formally rigorous. That’s what I want to do. There’s one scene that sticks out to me where the young boy gets bought a pair of shoes and he sneaks off into the stairwell and scratches them up with a piece of broken glass. It felt like such an extraordinarily true thing for a child to do. It’s an exquisite piece of writing because it’s a moment of recognition that children don’t always do things that fit neatly into a cinematic narrative. It’s a film that feels so true.”

Oliver Twist (1948)

“I can’t believe I’m saying it, but [David Lean’s] Oliver Twist. I wouldn’t say it’s influenced me on a formal level, but it's incredibly memorable. Sometimes it’s those things you watch as a kid that really stick with you. In a weird way it’s the original social realist film. I don’t think anyone else would say that, but politically, that’s exactly what it is. It’s about showing the deep inequality of the Victorian era. It’s about – like all of Dickens’ work – the haves and have-nots, it’s about patronage, it’s about class. It’s about portraying, albeit in a slightly sensationalised and moralised way, the dilemma of an asymmetric socioeconomic environment. It’s just a seminal portrait of Britain and it’s slightly scary how apposite it feels.”

Ish is out now in UK cinemas, as part of BFI Fan’s Rip it Up season which runs until October 31.