BFI-backed Ish premieres in Luton

In a full-circle moment, Imran Perretta’s urgent debut feature Ish celebrated its premiere in Luton, the origin place and setting of this powerful story. Financed by BBC Film and the BFI, which awarded National Lottery Good Causes funding, Ish’s release showcased the continued positive impact of investment in breakthrough talent, bringing underrepresented stories to the fore and allowing audiences a rich and varied array of cinematic offerings.

Since 1994, the National Lottery has generated over £53 billion for good causes across the UK. As the distributor of National Lottery funding for film, the BFI works with partners UK-wide to ensure this public investment has the greatest possible impact and reaches the people, projects and places where it is needed most. This includes investment in bold and vital new work that champions distinctive UK storytelling, including Ish.

Co-written by Perretta and Die, My Love and Hunger screenwriter Enda Walsh, Ish follows two 12-year-old best friends, Ish (Farhan Hasnat) and Maram (Yahya Kitana), whose relationship is torn apart by racial profiling and a traumatic police stop-and-search. The black-and-white coming-of-age story of marginalised youth in modern Britain holds significance with its representation of Luton’s South Asian and Middle Eastern community as well as its exploration of masculinity. Due to its nuanced and UK-specific portrayal of this community, Ish would have struggled to secure backing from the commercial film market, but with BFI National Lottery support, the film joins a canon of exciting debuts that offer underrepresented audiences a chance to see themselves and their communities reflected on screen. Additionally, this allows for a broader range of offerings that help audiences connect with stories and characters from backgrounds other than their own.

The BFI funding helped Perretta develop his filmmaking talent. Previously, the award-winning artist received the prestigious Turner Prize bursary in 2020 for The Destructors, a moving image exhibition that drew on his experience as a young man of Bangladeshi heritage. This is another benefit of Good Cause funding: supporting new up-and-coming filmmakers in telling unique stories that diversify viewing opportunities for audiences across the UK.

Speaking about the impact of the BFI’s National Lottery Good Causes funding, Perretta shared: “I want to say a huge thanks to National Lottery Good Cause funding through the BFI that we received to make Ish. Stories like ours are quite unusual… and we simply wouldn’t have been [able to do] it without the funding. I hope this is a continuum of interesting and underrepresented projects that are able to receive National Lottery funding that can find audiences in the UK and further afield.”

It’s not only filmmakers who benefit from this financial support; emerging and seasoned actors are also supported in vital career performances. Perretta found his stars in 12-year-olds Hasnat and Kitana, real long-standing friends who make their acting debuts in Ish. This was both an exciting discovery of new talent and an opportunity for the young cast to take important first steps in their acting careers – the pair were both longlisted for the British Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Performance. Barriers to entry continue to be a challenge in the arts, but the BFI’s funding of projects like Ish ensures the continued discovery and nurturing of future stars.

This investment in rich diversity both in front of and behind the camera has resonated with the acclaimed release of Perretta’s film. Ish had its world premiere at 2025’s Critics’ Week section of the Venice International Film Festival before being screened in competition for the Sutherland Award (for First Feature) at the BFI London Film Festival, where it won the section’s People’s Choice Award. Additionally, first-time producer Dhiraj Mahey won the British Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Producer with Ish. In the run up to its release, the film has received almost universal critical acclaim with a number of rave reviews.

Explaining why the BFI chose to fund Ish, Ama Ampadu, Senior Production & Development Executive for the BFI, shared: “We knew we wanted to fund Imran’s debut feature, realising early on it was an excellent project to support with good cause funding. Ish is a compelling narrative about a young teenager grappling with his shifting relationship with his best friend, grief over his mother’s recent death, and, as a young brown man in a post-9/11 world, his increasingly fraught relationship with state authorities. Whilst the film follows a hyper-local British South Asian experience, the film’s themes have universal appeal, thousands of young people and teenagers could identify with the characters in the film and the challenges they face.”

Ahead of its UK and Ireland release, Ish premiered in Luton, an event supported by the BFI’s National Lottery funding via the BFI Film Audience Network, which is dedicated to ensuring people across the whole of the UK can access a wide variety of cinema. The Bedfordshire town is at the heart of Perretta’s film (which he has described as “a love letter to Luton”) as it is the shooting location and setting for this timely story. The Luton premiere represented a continued investment in audiences and communities UK-wide and strengthening local cultural life.

Ish is out in UK and Ireland cinemas now, and a BFI Player release will follow in September.