Imran Perretta on community, collaboration and composing Ish: highlights from a BFI Film Academy masterclass
Imran Perretta, cinematographer Jermaine Canute Edwards and location manager Aly Ripo joined a BFI Film Academy masterclass to discuss the making of Ish, from its roots in Perretta’s own teenage experiences to the importance of creative collaboration and community.
Co-written, directed and composed by visual artist Imran Perretta, Ish follows 12-year-old friends Ishmael ‘Ish’ (Farhan Hasnat) and Maram (Yahya Kitana) as a harrowing police encounter threatens to strain their bond irreparably.
Following the cinema release of his debut feature, Perretta joined a BFI Film Academy masterclass, accompanied by cinematographer Jermaine Canute Edwards and location manager Aly Ripo, to discuss the film with Yorkshire-based film critic, culture writer and former BFI Young Programmer Jannat Suleman.
“A lot of it is centred on scenes from my teenage years,” Perretta revealed, speaking especially of the police stop-and-search at the heart of the film. Having had a similar experience at 13, Perretta said: “It broke my world open.” He spoke of wanting to write about characters being forced to come of age when they’re just not ready, with a violent induction into the adult world.
Growing up in south London, Perretta frequently visited family in Luton and documented the town through photography and writing. Bury Park, where much of the film was shot, has a large South Asian Muslim population. “Being part-Bangladeshi myself, that was always the community I gravitated towards.” It became the natural setting for Perretta’s debut.
In charge of locations, Aly Ripo interacted with the local community for months. Word spread quickly about the film production. “Someone’s cousin’s cousin” would tap Perretta or Edwards on the shoulder, who would then beckon them to the monitor to let them watch the footage. “People would turn up with food for us”, said Perretta, recalling a wedding-sized serving of biryani with a whole leg of lamb.
Being involved as early as the first draft is unusual for a location manager, but in this way Ripo got to understand the intended tone, feel and themes of the film. “It was a real baptism of fire,” Ripo admitted. For Perretta, though, it is essential to find the people around us who communicate the same way we do, who speak our language and who we feel safe with. “Because when you can look each other in the eye and know you’re telling the truth, you’ll be just fine, no matter how wrong it goes.”
The heist scene in Ish, which sees the two leads and their friends stealing fireworks, found the crew filming in one of the cash-and-carries on Dunstable Road. Jannat described the sequence as one of the film’s high-tension points, and the score – comprising claps, drums and haunting vocals – as hair-raising. Coming from contemporary art and experimental music, Perretta has always composed the soundtracks for his moving-image work. “I’ve played an instrument longer than I’ve held a camera,” he said.
Even so, composing for film remains a collaborative process. English folk music became central to the soundtrack for Ish during the edit, after editor Adam Biskupski began placing music from medieval-set films such as The Green Knight (2021) over footage of the boys in Luton.
Perretta’s role as composer was to translate the aesthetic sensibilities from that period into his own score. “When you have these moments of high tension in a film, very often with the score you do something rhythmic, because you can give it a pulse.”
Ish’s climactic fireworks scene, where the boys light up their shoplifted contraband, captures a fraught moment of loss and almost-reconciliation between the former friends. “It’s a romance,” Edwards said, and he and Perretta spoke extensively about how to emphasise and elevate these emotions.
As Ish runs with the flare, the scene recalls the elemental energy of Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis) racing through the bayou with sparklers in Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012). The camerawork is handheld and chaotic, the visual language liberating and free. “This is why I wanted to make this film,” Edwards said of the pivotal scene, which they shot in eight minutes at the end of a day.
Throughout the masterclass, Perretta warned young filmmakers that “so much of filmmaking is people telling you you can’t do stuff.” He encouraged the audience and viewers alike to be brave, take risks and dare the audience to stare back.