Screens August 1, 5
They can run, but they can’t hide. Pink-haired teenager Laila (played by non-professional Sameena Jabeen Ahmed) has shamed her Pakistani family by running away to a caravan park in Yorkshire with her Caucasian boyfriend Aaron (Conor McCarron, so memorable in Peter Mullan’s Neds). They may be having fun playing house, but they know retribution will arrive soon enough, and so it does. Two uncomfortably allied gangs of avengers – one being white contract thugs hired by Laila’s father Tariq, the other a posse of pumped-up Pakistanis, including Laila’s older brother, who privately hopes to be able to protect his sister from the worst when the moment comes – are closing in on them. The milieu is reminiscent of a Shane Meadows film, but the story has clear echoes of The Searchers. Daniel Wolfe, already established as an inventive director of music videos, has an impressive command of visual and sonic moods that effectively papers over holes in the plot and characterisation, although these tend to niggle in retrospect. For example, while it is true that there have been instances of “honour killing” among Pakistanis in the UK, it is offensive (unintentionally, without a doubt) to expect the mere fact of Tariq’s ethnicity to explain the fact he wants his beloved daughter killed. That said, Wolfe’s achievement here is something to behold; bleak and beautifully shot by ace cinematographer Robbie Ryan, Catch Me Daddy throws a bridge between classic British social realism and revenge tragedy with both sincerity and style.
Sameena Jabeen Ahmed stars as Laila, a young woman who has shamed her Pakistani family by running away to a caravan park with her boyfriend, in Catch Me Daddy, screening in MIFF 2014.