My BFI Player choice this week is the arresting debut feature
from Daniel and Matthew Wolfe
a harrowing and eerily powerful drama
that seems on the surface to tell a down-to-earth story
about a cross-cultural relationship that inspires violent family reprisals
Yet there’s a tactile transcendence to the visual and aural landscape
which elevates it above mere social realism
moving it closer to the territory of Lynne Ramsay and Clio Barnard
The remarkable 'Catch Me Daddy'
Screen newcomer and BIFA award winner Sameena Jabeen Ahmed is Laila
living in a remote caravan with boyfriend Aaron
keeping a low profile while two groups of men
one white, one British-Asian, compete to track her down
A sheet of plastic cut to line the back of a car
raises the newsworthy spectre of ‘honour killings’
although that phrase is never used in the movie
Instead, Robbie Ryan’s evocative cinematography universalises matters
with a kaleidoscope of expressionist images
the country-dark of the Yorkshire moors
the unforgiving glare of a fluorescent light
an expanding pool of spilt nail polish
Director Daniel Wolfe has a background in music videos
and it shows
In one key sequence, Laila dances to Patti Smith’s 'Horses'
the growing frenzy of Smith’s voice signalling the film’s descent into madness
Elsewhere, Tim Buckley strikes a lyrical note
while absurdist talk of Black Forest Gateau
lends a bizarre fairytale element to the script
The final movement is as grim as hell
and some may find it intolerable
but this latter-day Western has so much more to offer than misery
