The Ceremony

Two troubled migrant workers in a Bradford car wash are dragged into an escalating moral crisis as night falls. Each of them carries private hopes, traumas, and beliefs shaped by their diverse cultures. The two men must find a way to work out their differences if they’re to stand any chance of saving themselves and their sanity.

Director:

Jack King

Producers:

Holly Bryan

Lucy Meer

Cast:

Tudor Cucu-Dumitrescu

Erdal Yildiz

Mo’min Swaitat

 

Director Statement:

The Ceremony is set in my home city of Bradford and Yorkshire — a story inseparable from my own experience growing up in a mixed-race family in a multicultural community. Four years ago, I began researching the lives of the men this film seeks to represent: migrant workers whose realities differ greatly from mine. I visited car washes across the district, meeting men from Romania and Kurdistan — young, desperate, and often living in harsh conditions, underpaid and mistreated by those who saw them as disposable. Yet, beyond their circumstances, I found warmth, humour, and humanity. Our shared conversations inspired the heart of this film.

Rather than depicting economic hardship, The Ceremony explores the universal and inner lives of these outsiders — their dignity, complexity, and search for meaning. It is not a work of judgement or victimhood, but a reflection on the unseen individuals who live among us, hidden in plain sight.

At its core, The Ceremony follows a man grappling with guilt, death, and the moral tension between self-preservation and compassion, truth and ideology. Both men in the film face a spiritual crisis — paralysed by decaying values and a loss of brotherhood — ultimately seeking to reclaim the dignity eroded by abandonment and inhumanity.

These stories feel more urgent than ever. In a world growing harder to comprehend, we retreat into individualism, turning away from those who differ from us and losing sight of shared moral truths. The film doesn’t offer answers, but through the ordeal of its characters, it reflects my own attempt to navigate the spiritual and moral crisis of modern life — and to find faith, empathy, and humanity in the process.