Sínelection: Ish

Twelve-year-old Ish and his best friend Maram spend their summer roaming the woods and neighbourhoods of Luton, testing the limits of childhood as they begin to imagine the adults they might become. Their friendship changes after a police stop-and-search leaves Maram humiliated and Ish shaken; the racial profiling that surrounds them is suddenly brought into the space of their everyday lives.

Shot in striking black and white, Imran Perretta’s feature debut follows the boys as they negotiate friendship, grief, masculinity and belonging, showing how institutional suspicion can enter the most ordinary relationships and how differently two friends can experience the same world.