"It's definitely not at issues film" - Filmmaker Daniel Wolfe on CATCH ME DADDY

After a prominent and celebrated career as the director of music videos and shorts, British filmmaker Daniel Wolfe made his feature directorial debut in a riveting modern noir and western set in the Yorkshire Moors called Catch Me Daddy. A story about a seventeen year old girl on the run from home, who is chased down by two cars full of bounty hunters hired by her British Pakistani father who wants to bring her back home. It's dark, tense, stylish and coated with a genuineness that makes the thrilling chase all the more gritty.
 
(This interview was conducted during the 44th International Film Festival Rotterdam. To listen to the full interview on FRED Film Radio, click here.)

MATT MICUCCI: THIS FILM IS BORN OUT OF QUITE DIFFICULT SOCIO-CULTURAL BACKGROUND

DANIEL WOLFE: You've got two cultures colliding. You've got a girl on the cusp of womanhood who wants to explore life, you know, she was brought up in the west while her father is from a patriarchal system. And she struggles with that. BUt at the end of the day, we weren't really trying to push any theme. In fact, I see this film much more like and ensemble piece. Yes, there is the father and the girl story, but each of the characters is broken and struggling to fit into their belief system and is trapped inside their own schemes. Each of the characters is trying to escape, though each of the characters has a very subjective idea of that escape. So, it's definitely not an issues film.

 

MM: THIS BEING YOUR FIRST FEATURE, DID YOU FIND YOUR PROMINENT BACKGROUND IN MUSIC VIDEOS HELPED YOU?

DW: Having experience on set and using the same crew was big help. My brother [Matthew Wolfe] and I worked on a few ideas for music videos before and Robbie Ryan the cinematographer worked with us on a couple of shoots. So there was a team already in place, and that was more helpful than an actual continuation of style, because I don't think there is a consistent particular style I use - street casting was prominent throughout all my work and was continued in Catch Me Daddy.

 

MM: TELL US A LITTLE MORE ABOUT THE STREET CASTING.

DW: We knew from very early on that we wanted real people, also bacause we wanted things like the regional accents to be real, obviously with the setting playing such an important role in the film - and we were influenced by people like Bruno Dumont in this sense. And there weren't many actors stepping up to the challenge, so we just set off on this extensive street casting process, we had a team working literally for months going to snooker clubs, night clubs. We'd go there at three o'clock in the morning. For the girl [Sameena Jabeen Ahmed] it was actual street casting in the traditional sense of the term. One of the casting girls tapped her on the shoulders actually asking her for the time, thought she looked great and asked her to come to a casting. Her face really hooked in and as soon as she walked through the door she just had a great presence. But at the end of the day, I don't care whether someone is an actor or a non actor as long as they feel authentic and they look real on the screen - and I feel that's what we achieved.

 
Catch Me Daddy is out in the key cities of the UK on the 27th of February 2015. To listen to the full interview with Daniel Wolfe on Catch Me Daddy on FRED Film Radio, click here