Robbie Ryan's wonderful, wonky cinematography dominates an unusual, wrenching take on “honour” killings, from first-time British director Daniel Wolfe.
Yorkshire teen, Laila (excellent newcomer, Sameena Jabeen Ahmed) is in hiding from her Pakistani family. She lives in a caravan on the moors with her boyfriend, Aaron (Conor McCarron), and they share a half-happy, half-bleak existence, getting stoned, eating cheap cakes and rocking out to music. Watching Laila dance to Patti Smith's Land is a distressing joy. She whirls. She does the mashed potato. Meanwhile, men hired by her dad home in for the kill.
The film, full of fresh and funny moments, is superior in every way to last year's similarly themed, Honour. Yet there's something unsettling about the depiction of the North as a place where Asians can threaten and kill with impunity (the Pakistani gangsters aren't afraid to attack white people who get in their way). In his eagerness to provide thrills, Wolfe comes close to suggesting that this part of England is dominated by its Asian communities.
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Catch Me Daddy is based on a real-life incident, but wanders too far from the facts. What a shame. In these UKIP-tainted times, audiences who would otherwise embrace Laila's story may be tempted to keep it at arm’s length.
