Naqqash Khalid’s directorial feature debut In Camera remains in the mind for a long time after watching. Much of this comes from the instinctive, very human central performance from Nabhaan Rizwan’s Aden, a young actor struggling to find his place in the industry but, it’s important to say, this isn’t just a standard cinematic approach to the plights of the difficulties of performers, it’s a myriad of remarks, from the apathy that develops within a career, to the very factual issue of being type-cast as a British Asian actor (and literally being asked if he can ‘try an accent’ but ‘not from here’ at one point) and also how individuality can feel like a distant disconnection, when everyone else appears to be doing the same thing.

Opening the film within a TV show being shot, we see the classic UK cop show setting that scrapes along through every channel, especially at the moment. In it, a young detective (Aston McAuley) is looking at a dead body on the floor, and his partner is telling him to get used to it and clichés are abundant. We then hear the ‘cut!’ and are pulled out of the scene to follow McAuley’s character and hear how he’s desperately trying to get out of this contract, so he can take on more meaningful work. During this, the guy playing the corpse – covered in fake blood – tries to compliment McAuley’s lead but is rather brushed off. However, this is the first switch of focus in the film and soon we’re with the person we’ll actually be following in the film, which is Rizwan’s Aden; playing the ‘dead body’ and taking on whatever role he can get.

For me, atmosphere is key with In Camera alongside Nabhaan Rizwan giving a stellar performance as Aden, he’s clearly wanting to develop but also exhausted and detached, more or less ‘drifting in the abstract’ with his sense of self. That environment of space and separation from reality is continued in the filming technique, with DOP Tasha Back helping to create a ground-level existence, with clean, plain-coloured rooms with little lived-in depth (like a ‘happy’ home might have) to offer a suggestion that they’re not really living in this flat, merely existing.

This setup is somewhat echoed by Aden’s flatmate Bo, portrayed excellently by Rory Fleck Byrne, who’s a Junior Doctor – and helping to pay the rent when Aden isn’t getting any jobs. While the pair do endeavour to connect to each other, Bo’s noticeably distant because he’s exhausted from working all the given hours at the hospital. It’s also shown that he’s beginning to hallucinate, plus sleeping on the floor whenever he sits down, and seeing vending machines in places where even vending machines shouldn’t be.

But their home life is injected with a boost of fresh hope when Amir El-Masry’s Conrad moves in, he’s positive, smooth-talking and while certainly self-promoting, doesn’t come off as arrogant but more confident in a situation that’s desperately in need of some certainty. El-Masry is superb here, with his classy fashion-sense and sharing expensive takeaway meals, he brings new ideas to Aden’s wandering mind, pointing out that this is ‘our time’, in an era that had often glazed over them. This inspires Aden with a more direct course, with both progressive and devastatingly emotional outcomes, with his onwards acting decisions.

What I found interesting about In Camera, not discounting Nabhaan Rizwan’s captivating performance, is how you start to question what you’re seeing in the third act: are certain characters who you think they are? Do they even exist? Are we diving inside the ‘characters’ that Aden has created, or is this just a representation of the apathy of so many people, across all industries when you don’t really know why you’re doing it, but have to in order to pay the rent, or just live day-to-day. I also liked that Khalid puts the question of acting and the art form in the air somewhat – as it’s shown to be a soulless endless cycle of self-tape auditions and multiple rejections.

While hope does lie under the rippling sea of the unsure, I think the overall approach of this debut feature takes a welcomingly ambitious approach, and it’s full of moments that deserve to be examined. In Camera is a brooding, visceral mediation that sits ubiquitously in-between the cracks of light amid the subconscious and waking mind…Welcome to the industry.

In Camera opens in UK cinemas on 13 September