Caught in the act

Daniel Nelson

Catch Me Daddy

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Catch Me Daddy is both the title and teenage runaway Laila’s challenge, as she hides out in a caravan park with her white boyfriend on the edge of the Yorkshire moors.

The couple’s spirited adventure turns to horror as her brother, Zaheer, on their father’s instruction, comes after them in hot pursuit, buttressed by a gang of pals and mercenaries. The chase is on.

It’s bleak. The town is bleak, filmed in a harsh light that jags like the wincing sound of fingernails on a blackboard, but its bleakness is nothing compared with the bleakness of the characters. There’s not much joy in any of these lives, apart from the thugs’ gallows humour, Laila bopping to Patti Smith, and a few giggles and happy moments between Laila and boyfriend Aaron.

But there’s energy enough to fuel a tank, plus a spattering of quirkiness, pit-in-the-stomach excitement, dramatic visuals and a threat of impending violence that finally sickeningly explodes. Film-making brothers Daniel and Matthew Wolfe manage to sustain the dread in a Grand Guignol last-scene confrontation between conflicted dad and shattered daughter.

It’s strong stuff, not for the faint-hearted, but there’s room for gritty films, and sometimes even brutality – which, after all, really exists. I emerged dazed and wobbly.