Dir/scr: Dominic SavageUK. 2005. 86mins.

A timely call forracial tolerance set in an unnamed town in northern England with a large Muslimcommunity, Love+Hate will be energised, for UK distributors, by thecurrent debate on the resurgence of Islamic identity among apparentlywell-integrated second- and third-generation immigrants.

Ona simpler level, though, this is a classic Romeo & Juliet yarn: agirl and boy from opposite sides of the divide fall in love; their affair looksset to be crushed by peer-group bigotry and family pressure. It's a film inwhich the spirit of Ken Loach - and the BBC drama tradition he emerged from -looms large, not only because it treads ground already explored by the Nuneatonauteur in Ae Fond Kiss.

Writerand director Dominic Savage - who at the age of 12 played the young LordBullingdon in Kubrick's Barry Lyndon - sets his film in theworking-class heart of Loach-land and like il maestro, he prefersnon-professional actors. He even poaches Ken's faithful DoP sidekick, Barry Ackroyd.

Butdespite the parallels, Love + Hate, Savage's first full-length feature,doesn't feel too derivative. Savage has a distinctive style: glossier than thatof maestro Loach (probably a result of the young pretender's pop video past),but saved from superficiality by its grounding in well-drawn charactersspeaking lines that ring true, and by the refreshing tenderness of the centrallove story.

Thisis an altogether better-crafted product than the director's 2002 made-for-TVfeature Out Of Control, though it shares that earlier film'sover-conventional plot development.

Onestep beyond its obvious TV roots, Love + Hate should have a fair tomiddling tour of duty in UK cinemas and see some arthouse action in territoriessuch as France and Italy, which love to see the multi-ethnic side of theBritish in films such as Sweet Sixteen, Dirty Pretty Things or EastIs East.

Shotin Blackburn, Lancashire, the film spins its Romeo and Juliet plotline out ofthe stand-off between Asian and white communities which has led to riots inscarred industrial towns like Oldham, Bradford and Burnley.

Seventeen-year-oldNaseema (Samina Awan) lives with her Muslim family in one of the terracedhouses that snake up the hill from the town centre (symbolically above, anddistanced from, the social hub). Starting a job in a local discount wallpaperemporium, Naseema meets Michelle (Nichola Burley), a likeable underage womanwho has just begun dating a "paki" boy.

Theother store employee, Adam (Hudson), is openly hostile to Naseema because ofthe colour of her skin. But Adam is not a hardened racist, just a sensitiveyoung lad who is too much under the influence of his nasty elder brother Sean;and true to the script, his animosity towards Naseema is a smokescreen for anentirely different feeling.

Love+ Haterelies unashamedly on coincidence: Michelle's squeeze turns out to be Naseema'sbrother, who happens to work in a factory with Michelle's father (no spoilerthis: we learn it a few minutes in). Hypocrisy and prejudice on both sides oilthe wheels of the story: one of the most chilling moments of backstory exegesiscomes when Adam and Sean's nice middle-class mother treats their bricking of a"paki" shop as a spot of boyish high spirits.

Theneatness of the parallels (white male peer pressure and Asian family pressure)and character chicanes is in the end more elegant than annoying - mainlybecause it is grounded in a series of affecting and committed performances bySavage's troupe of mostly first-time actors.

Ackroyd'sphotography here has a real cinematic feel, with surprisingly little of thehandheld, documentary-style camerawork that one might expect of such a grittytheme. The prominent indie rock soundtrack (by Snow Patrol et al), and theupbeat ending will extend Love + Hate's appeal to the youth market -though they also leach the drama of some of its raw power.

Productioncompanies
Ruby Films
UK Film Council
BBC Films

Internationalsales
The Works

Executiveproducers
Robert Jones
David Thompson
Ruth Caleb

Producers
Neris Thomas
Alison Owen

Cinematography
Barry Ackroyd

Productiondesign
Sami Khan

Editor
David G Hill
Nicolas Gaster

Maincast

SaminaAwan
Tom Hudson
Nichola Burley
Wasim Zakir
Dean Andrews