Having made his name in the world of music videos, Daniel Wolfe hasn’t taken the easy option with his first film as a director. Working closely with his brother Matthew, Daniel has stuck to his Northern roots with the highly-acclaimed Catch Me Daddy, but ventured onto the hugely controversial subject matter of honour killings. We spoke with the director about his award-winning debut and began by finding out more about how it all started.

I was up in Yorkshire doing an MA in screen-writing. On the way back to the station I saw a regional paper and the headline was reporting that a house had been burnt down. There was a production company doing a documentary about another case, as it turned out this was related to a British Pakistani family, but I didn’t want to just grab onto this headline. I spoke to my brother and we found it really interesting. Then we saw another case and it became even more interesting. We saw an angle in. This time two British Pakistani guys had hired local thugs to hunt for a girl’s boyfriend. They were hired to execute him. It was the fact that it had become a commercial transaction that made it feel like a contemporary Western. It was also the age old struggle of father and daughter and freedom. All these ideas were bubbling around and we pitched it to Mike Elliot who has a production company. He liked it and from there. we took it to Film 4, The BFI and Studio Canal. We had great support from all of them. We were very fortunate to have the late Chris Collins as one of our execs. He really got what we were trying to do and was quietly supportive yet questioning. Always pushing us to interrogate the script, the edit, not to settle. He is sadly missed.”

In case there was any doubt to the reader, Daniel is white. His accent points to a familiarity with the locations used in ‘Catch Me Daddy’, but his appearance suggests an outsider looking in. As well as being a serious subject matter, one which is seemingly in the news on a depressingly regular basis, it’s also combined with a thriller in this fictional account. How was that balance found?

It was difficult. We wanted to set it over one night. That grounded it. We spoke to a lot of people and did a lot of research. But we weren’t making social-realism here, it’s a heightened film. My brother and I were looking for something more mythic. In that area you’ve already got the War of the Roses, and we have a family feud and a father out for revenge. Some people say i’m a frustrated documentary-maker because i’m always street-casting and meeting people over months and months. I really wanted to present this as a drama and not make an issues film. It’s a thriller but highlights a topic. Hopefully it will bring awareness to a horrific subject matter, but it’s not just about that.”

Familiarity with the subject matter is one thing, but the film has also won plaudits for the cinematography it employs. Was it important to be in locations that were already known to Daniel?

Not really. We talked about Scotland and we talked about Wales. There was a real grit factor to Yorkshire. It just felt right. We were reading the descriptions in Ted Huges’ poems. We hired a house in Todmorden and wrote it around there presuming we would film it elsewhere. Then as it happens we ended up back there and that was the bus station used in the film. At the same time we were careful were we pointed the camera.”

Being so deep-rooted in the North, what has been the reaction from other parts of the country. What about the media reaction from the traditionally London-based film writers and producers?

Yorkshire Film Council really love it! People actually respond well to it because there is a certain beauty there. There is the landscapes and we are clear to show that this is a group of people on the margins of society. That’s what they do in Westerns. Some people react to it and point “Grim up North”, but there is a beauty.”

And how about the Asian community, who are essentially the focal point of the film. How have they reacted to it?

That’s a hard one to gauge. We went in saying its two white guys, which is pretty obvious, and we said we want to do this. We have a number of people from production and cast from Pakistani and Asian backgrounds and immediately got a positive reaction from them. I was nervously awaiting some feedback and was told that this is a really good portrayal of a young British Pakistani girl. The street-casting allowed us to not only authentic people but to also get interrogated about the project. We got support. There was never a question of “Why are you two white guys doing this?”, i’ve not seen any negative press. We’re not targeting religion. It’s a small group of broken individuals.”

Having seen a number of British films try, and fail, to deal with the subject matter, it was a relief to me personally to finally watch a film that succeeds to tell a story. Daniel has been keen to point out the collaborative nature of the project, which must have helped.

People who read the script were interested. We had influential people who we had worked with before and we talked. At the end of the day, me and my brother had a very strong vision. We were open, when people wanted to say something we took it in. A friend of mine did the photography on some of the supporting literature and he helped. There was a lot of that involved. That said, I think outsider make good art. That distance plus lots of research helped. Our vision changed from script to screen. I mean in terms of the actors there aren’t even that many British Pakistani actor, which is a shame. You’ve got Riz Ahmed doing great stuff in America but there is not a lot else. We could have done what some people have done and just cast Indian actors but that’s not our style. Soaking it all in but being ready to be told as well that people aren’t comfortable with something. I’ve always been like that, even with music videos. I don’t really know what young people talk like, I don’t want to give them something fake written in a house in Cambridge.”

Catch Me Daddy

We’ve heard a lot about the street-casting process used on Catch Me Daddy. Can you tell us a bit more about that.

Well Gary Lewis was Billy Elliot’s dad! That made us laugh, to see him go on a rampage. We had other actors who have been in things before and a professional in that sense. Some of the actors were so convincing that people think they they were street-cast. Connor McCarron, who plays Aaron, was found this way for NEDS. The majority though were street-cast, from the small parts to to the lead. We got everyone to get to know one another by arranging these elaborate set ups. Sameena got to know the actors playing her family by meeting them for dinner. Sometimes we would turn up, but a lot of the time we would leave them to it. Gary Lewis is more of a classical actor, so when we got him to turn up and pick up Barry [Barry Nunney], it ended up with a trip to the barber’s! It was hilarious as we saw Gary getting increasingly pissed off as he waits for Barry to have a haircut.

How hard was it to sell or even pitch a film off the back of a lead actress who is so unknown?

It was difficult. I loved Wuthering Heights, and that came about this way. I think people were primed in some way. There were some ups and down because Sameena (who plays Laila) said she wasn’t happy with certain things. We sat down and found out exactly what they were. She was really respectful and looking back at it now I think that was a best move. I quite like how two kids play it young and innocent in the end. It’s not sexy, but their love is beautiful. Robbie Ryan, who was our cinematographer, took one look at a clip and said “she is the one.” They had seen several casting tapes, for a screen test we just filmed them improvising for a few minutes and that’s what people loved it. She carries it. And of course she has won two awards so i’m so proud. I know she put her heart and soul into it. I know I pushed her early on, I got her into an emotional state when were were going through the story.

When talking to Daniel, you can see exactly the excitement and enthusiasm he has for his projects. He works closely with his brother, so I wondered how that relationship works when filming.

Matthew brings a quieter energy. He brings a different set of influences and a stillness. It comes across in this and all the things we do together. When i’ve done stuff on my own it can be quite visceral. I direct the actors but in everything else he is there. He watches it all. Him and Robbie chat about the cinematography. He is facts and films and knowledge, but contained. We are very fortunate to have such a good relationship. We work so well together as there is no ego. For us we just wanted to have control over everything. He wrote the score. We looked over the title sequence and pretty much everything else. The whole package, because I was very scared that this could be marketed in the wrong way. We knew early on we wanted to give people a book as a complementary piece. My brother showed me some amazing programmes from Japan of Hollywood films that played there. I like marketing and merchandise. I love that side of it. My brother said can you imagine if they did a sort of bounty hunters on the edge type poster… how bad would that look? I wanted to show the energy but without implying that it was a thriller-thriller. It’s not the end though… I can picture an argument about what we want the Blu-ray cover to be like.

Have you been surprised by the critical reaction to it?

Yes and no… but mainly yes! We are very lucky. You can make a film and it can go nowhere. I was in New Zealand and I got this email in the middle of the night there. I woke the whole house up screaming at the news we got into Cannes. That was just an amazing platform. I love the film and am glad people like it, but there are also great films that get lambasted by the press. We are in a good place. It’s great the critics like it, but then we look forward to how the public will react to it.

And finally how do you move on to the next project?

My brother is writing now actually. We’ve been commissioned to do a screenplay and its about a British snooker player in China who starts losing his mind. A thriller but with a bubbling undercurrent of a man on the edge. I think snooker is really cinematic. The whole thing is the silence with the “click click” of the balls. China itself is on a huge scale and epic. There is hedonism and craziness. The stakes are very high.

Catch Me Daddy is released on February 27th, and you can read our review here.