Ish (2025)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- "Ish" follows two best friends, Ish (Farhan Hasnat) and Maram (Yahya Kitana), on the cusp of being teenagers. In a society where racial profiling ensures brown boys are constantly under surveillance, their friendship is ended by a traumatic police stop-and-search. Ish soon discovers that 'letting go' can be the hardest part of growing up.
- Actors:
- Zubin Varla, Stefan Mihalache, Sagar Arya, Sudha Bhuchar, Robert Ryan, Avin Shah, Farhan Hasnat, Joy Crookes, Yahya Kitana, Arman Muhammad, Sanjay Batra, Hasnain Shah, Is'Haaq Hasan Haque, Flynn Quarchioni
- Directors:
- Imran Perretta
- Producers:
- Dhiraj Mahey, Bennett McGhee
- Writers:
- Imran Perretta, Enda Walsh
- Genres:
- Drama
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Reviews (1) of Ish
Only Ish in Name - Ish review by griggs
There's a scene early on where two kids build a den in the woods, half-expecting to get caught foraging for fruit, and it's such a perfect snapshot of childhood that I nearly forgot what film I was watching.
Imran Perretta's debut doesn't feel like one. Farhan Hasnat and Yahya Kitana are barely out of primary school and somehow shoulder the entire film — they're stupendous. Ish is quietly working through losing his mother. Maram's fighting a different battle, dead certain the IDF are coming for Luton and telling anyone who'll listen he's ready for them. Grief and geopolitics shouldn't share a scene this comfortably, but somehow they do. Then a stop and search arrives and strips the innocence clean off — sharp, sudden, and it lands. Joy Crookes turns up too, in her acting debut, and she's a natural; no wobbly first steps here.
My one gripe: the soundtrack keeps jumping the gun, bracing you for the next scene's trauma before you've settled into this one. Still, I finished it desperate to know what happens to Ish next — half tempted to lobby for a sequel just so I can check in on him.
Handsome, confident, and only ish in name — this film knows exactly what it's doing.