In Camera
Naqqash Khalid casts the spotlight on the trials and tribulations of British-Asian actors in his admirably ambitious directorial debut.
Image courtesy of Conic.
Coincidental as it may be, it is nevertheless noteworthy that the two most adventurous first features to be made in Britain last year are both concerned with the experience of what it is to be a person wholly or partly of Pakistani descent living in England. The Nottingham-based Moin Hussain gave us Sky Peals about a young man with that background, Adam Mohammed, a loner working a nightshift in a Midlands service station and now we have Naqqash Khalid from Manchester also looking at someone equally troubled. But in his case, it's a struggling actor named Aden who keeps going for auditions but rarely gets chosen and then not in worthwhile roles (In Camera first shows him participating in the shoot of a police procedural but he is merely the corpse lying on the floor whose death is being investigated).
Both Sky Peals and In Camera are unsurprisingly works for which the director also wrote the screenplay and in each case we have a work that holds out distinct promise for the future. Neither piece is perfect but they are nevertheless well worth investigating not least because Faraz Ayub in the role of Adam and Nabhaan Rizwan playing Aden each bring to their central role qualities which mark them out as actors of exceptional talent. By chance both movies combine a certain naturalism with elements that are highly stylised. Those in Sky Peals include what is almost a sci-fi element through references to aliens and the realistic work setting takes on a symbolical character linking it to the afterlife and to the River Styx. Even if it remains a mysterious piece open to interpretation, it does manage to cohere whereas In Camera can be accused of coming together less well due to failing to investigate its ideas fully while also taking on too many elements. However, the positive qualities in each outweigh the misjudgements.
The most straightforward aspect of In Camera lies in its satirical but recognisable portrait of the daily life of an actor, especially one yet to make a mark. Moreover, in Aden's case he knows that the colour of his skin will limit the roles for which he will be considered and that the competition will be all the more intense since others of a similar ethnic background will always be fighting for the limited roles available. In addition, the acting world is certainly not free of colour prejudice and how Aden is treated often reflects that. If Aden is insecure that comes equally from the tensions of trying to make a living in this way and from his own lack of confidence over social acceptance. That he is not fully at ease in his own identity feeds into his liking for acting since there your role is firmly defined for you and everything is ordered. In life he, like many others, may be tempted to try on roles designed to impress others. As it happens Aden is sharing accommodation with two other men of a comparable age to himself, one of whom is Conrad (Amir El-Masry). Unlike Aden, Conrad is self-assured or acts as though he is being constantly optimistic about his work as a fashion consultant and believing that their generation is able to set the trends. The third of this trio, Bo (Rory Fleck Byrne), is a junior doctor under even more under pressure than Aden.
In effect, although Aden is the central character here, In Camera blends together a portrait of these three young men and in doing so it offers a narrative with limited space for female roles. The most telling part of the film is that which revolves around Aden himself because one recognises the validity inherent here both in the depiction of a struggling actor and in the ethnic issues that affect him. But rather unexpectedly we see too how in order to ease his finances Aden lets himself be led into using his acting skills in another way. This is when he is encouraged by a bereaved mother (Josie Walker) to go to her home and there to act out the role of her son. One is reminded here of two earlier films, Alps (2011) and Marjorie Prime (2017), but, even if these scenes are related to acting and identity, one is aware that those earlier films made much more of the theme of standing in for the dead. Here that element remains only a side issue and is left undeveloped. Later there are touches in which a breakdown of individual identity is suggested when action by Conrad is referred to by Aden yet attributed to himself. The dialogue here carries a slight echo of Pinter but it does not really lead anywhere.
If Conrad’s apparent confidence provides a contrast to Aden, Bo’s situation is that of somebody under pressure even greater than that experienced by Aden. His behaviour is revealed as odd early on and it will only increase, but this part of the narrative fails to work albeit that the actor is in no way to blame. In one sense we are shown too little: we may know that doctors in the UK are overworked these days but, while Aden's work is illustrated, we see nothing of what Bo is actually going through in this respect. On the other hand, we are present when he is driving a car and appears to see a vending machine in the centre of the road ahead and it will be Bo who is featured in the film’s most original and disturbing image, one that is entirely non-naturalistic. But, rather than such elements being presented as dreams or as convincing hallucinations, they simply take the film into surrealist territory without seeming to be truly integrated.
Ultimately In Camera feels like a film of intriguing ideas that fails to find any consistent style in which to develop them fully, but it is relatively modest in length (95 minutes) and never uninteresting. As such it is a promising calling card for Naqqash Khalid confirming that he is indeed a writer/director of talent and originality regardless of the film’s shortcomings. But the major revelation here lies in the performance of Nabhaan Rizwan. His portrayal of Aden could hardly be better and on those occasions when we see Aden taking on a character at an audition, he assumes that role with conviction – he not only persuades us that Aden has it in him to be a good actor but adds to our awareness of Rizwan’s own special potential.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Nabhaan Rizwan, Amir El-Masry, Rory Fleck Byrne, Josie Walker, Aston McAuley, Gana Bayarsaikhan, Antonio Aakeel, Sarah-Jane Potts, Jamie Ballard, Hussina Raja, Clare Burt, Ashraf Hamid, Naomi Radcliffe.
Dir Naqqash Khalid, Pro Juliette Lasthe and Mary Burke, Screenplay Naqqash Khalid, Ph Tasha Back, Pro Des Gary Thompson, Ed Ricardo Saraiva, Music Clark, Costumes Natalie Roar.
Prettybird/Public Dreams/Uncommon Creative Studio/BBC Film/BFI-Conic.
95 mins. UK. 2023. UK Rel: 13 September 2024. Cert. 15.
