THE BEACH was inspired by the World Press Photo of the Year 2003. It was taken by Jean-Marc Bouju in An Najaf, Iraq on the 31st of March 2003, during the Iraq war.

The photo captured a hooded Iraqi man suspected of being an insurgent comforting his four-year-old son who would not be separated from him.

They were held captive in an American detainee holding centre surrounded by razor wire. No one knows what happened to the father and son.

This film is directed by a Muslim father of two young children and the story is an exploration of how he would have tried to overcome the situation of the father and the son in that tragic award winning photograph.