‘Ish’ Has Resonated Widely Amid “Authoritarian Turn,” Says Its BAFTA Breakthrough Writer-Director

Writer-director Imran Perretta’s debut feature film Ish has been making waves on the festival circuit and beyond for more than a year now.

And it feels like it has only become more timely. After all, it centers on racial profiling and a U.K. police stop-and-search that sets two best friends on a collision course.

Ish, which won the audience award at the 2025 Venice Critics’ Week, stars Farhan Hasnat, Yahya Kitana and Sudha Bhuchar and tells the story of Ish and Maram, two young teenagers who get confronted with police harassment and its repercussions. Its characters are often marginalized, both onscreen and off, and the film was shot in the city of Luton, near London, which often earns media coverage more for crime than other news.

On Wednesday, Perretta, who was previously best known as a multi-disciplinary artist, was revealed as a member of the 2026 U.K. BAFTA Breakthrough cohort, supported by Netflix.

He talked to THR about the journey of Ish, the surprises it has provided and its universal themes.

“I come from the art world, so for me, the life cycle of a film is really a new experience,” Peretta tells THR. “You really walk alongside the film for a long time. We did our festival run, and we’re still doing festivals here and there. But what I couldn’t really have imagined was what happened when the film came out [in cinemas]. I expected that to be the bookend of the whole experience, but in a weird way, it’s been a new start for the film.”

The movie’s impact and performance have also blown him and others away. “It’s been so exciting because it exceeded all of our expectations in terms of the reception and what it did at the box office and all this sort of stuff,” he says. “So, I’m still pinching myself that so much can happen in a year. It’s crazy! I’m a very happy boy.”

About the reactions and discussions that Ish has caused at screenings, Perretta shares: “There have been so many community screenings and activist screenings. A lot of activist-adjacent film organizations have shown the work all over the world, including in Germany, America, Russia. There are loads of places where allies have felt that there is a [chance for a] certain conversation politically and have wanted to engage with the film and show it to audiences.”

For example, in Paris. “In the midst of the riots, programmers there have been desperate to show the film because I think they have this same conversation around police brutality and around the overreach of police powers in the context of community organizing,” he shares. “And it is also [timely] about the context of young people just trying to make a better reality for themselves.”

But again, the creative has been surprised. “What I didn’t expect was that it would speak to a much broader audience,” Perretta tells THR. “It has been amazing. There’s been this amazing spread of different types of audiences, from activist audiences or certainly politically engaged audiences to cinephiles, but then also ‘normal filmgoers.’ I’m super surprised in a good way and also really proud of that.”

One reason may be that the themes that Ish explores feel very timely. “So many Western countries have taken this authoritarian turn where the police have been given powers that really extend beyond [traditional powers], or certainly they wield those powers in a way that feels really unjust or asymmetric, whether that’s in America, France, Italy, the U.K., wherever,” Perretta says. “And in that context the film sparks a conversation because, it’s sad to say, that is a universal experience now. And also, this idea of surveillance is a universal experience.”

While the film may be set in Luton, he credits its specificity with making its themes and messages resonate around the world. Perretta would be happy to see Luton represented on screens more regularly. “That would be amazing, certainly if the stories show it fairly and truthfully,” he offers. “I would absolutely implore people to shoot in Luton because it’s just an amazing place.”

What’s up next for the creative? “I’m working on some music stuff at the moment and have an [exhibition] at the Tate Britain,” namely the destructors, which “navigates the complexities of coming of age for Asian Muslim men in Britain after 9/11,” according to the Tate website.

“And then I’m also back to screenwriting,” Perretta tells THR. “One that I’m writing at the moment has a lot to do with property and land and this very British idea of ownership – what it means to own something and what it means to leverage that ownership. You can chart a lot of the highs and lows – well, let’s be real, it’s lows for anyone other than the ruling class. So for me, it’s another political work about all of the friction – social, emotional, and political – that comes from this idea of ownership.”