From Omeleto.
A couple meets her parents.
IN MY DAY is used with permission from William Grave. Learn more at https://linktr.ee/williamgrave.
Michelle is a white British woman deeply in love with her boyfriend, Asif. They’re happy and treat one another well. But their relationship ignites tensions with local far-right skinheads.
During a dinner with her parents, Asif faces their polite but chilly distance. As tensions between Michelle and her parents come out into the open, Michelle must face up to the difficult future that she faces with Asif and a world that will always see him as different.
Directed and written by William Grave, this eerie, subtly disquieting short drama builds a touching portrait of two lovers in a mutual blush of contentment and happiness, existing in an oppressive, drab world that sees their relationship as aberrant and wrong.
One of its achievements is its thoughtful and disciplined use of visuals to portray societal oppression and how it seeps into every aspect of life. Michelle and Asif first face hostility as they’re attacked by a group of skinheads in the city, portrayed as a series of ruthless brutalist buildings that loom heavily over the couple. The use of black-and-white cinematography is especially striking for its preponderance of grays, creating a strangely timeless atmosphere, as well as a sense of a fraying world drained of vitality, with hostility and mistrust replacing any feeling of community or belonging.
Within this drab, uncomfortable milieu, Michelle and Asif enjoy a beautifully easy, charming connection, the dialogue loosening up from its earlier sparse awkwardness. Their talk flows; their laughter is genuine, and we find it easy to root for them together. Actors Omar Hashmi and Lauren Clancy have a natural, easygoing chemistry that breathes life into the film’s considerable stylization, and much of the film’s early tension comes from the threat of the outside world to their relationship.
Their dynamic contrasts with the ominous, almost surreal countryside, where Michelle’s parents live, which Asif finds strange and alienating. The dinner is full of loaded pauses and sharp glances, and the home is represented by odd, even clinical inserts of the food and surroundings, creating a hostile hothouse that Michelle and Asif exist uneasily within. When the conversation turns to outright confrontation, the force of conflict is enough to disrupt Michelle and Asif’s romantic bubble, as they reckon with just how difficult their future together will be.
Superbly directed and visually striking, IN MY DAY positions itself as a romantic drama with social commentary. But then it upends it all with a reveal that forces viewers to rethink everything they’ve seen earlier. The shift rewards repeated viewing — not just for clues, but also to appreciate the film’s sleight of hand. It’s in service to insights into how prejudices and the "other" evolve as the world changes. As we’re forced to see everything with a new lens, we also interrogate how easily we fall into certain assumptions — and wonder where in our current world we’re not looking closely enough as well.
