SYNOPSIS

A year ago Sergeant MAX CALLAGHAN (45) was dismissed from the  the police force after taking responsibility for one of his men’s actions against rioters. Now, estranged from his embittered wife, HELEN (40s), and teenage daughter LINA (16), Max works as a security guard and sleeps on his sister’s couch. He spends his evenings drinking and playing darts with his ex-colleagues. Just when he’s beginning to believe his life has hit rock bottom, his daughter disappears. Max discovers that Lina went missing after a secret date with a Muslim teenager named WAZ (17).

With no leads from the police, and a deep sense of guilt about the neglect of his family, Max initiates an obsessive search for his daughter. After a heated altercation with Waz, Max begins to tail the boy. Given the kid’s street life and reputation as a ‘ladies man’, Max systematically convinces himself that Waz is involved in Lina’s disappearance.

Desperate to find his daughter alive, Max kidnaps Waz, ties him up in an abandoned factory, and tortures him in the hope of uncovering the truth. Despite his harrowing ordeal, the boy displays extraordinary stoicism: his sense of honour and dignity strongly resonates with Max, and leads to a bond between the two. Max realizes that Waz is innocent and contacts his loyal friend and ex-colleague, GEORGE (40s), and informs him that he plans to let the boy free before turning himself in.

It is precisely at this point, as Max is about to redeem himself, that Lina’s Diary turns up and fate takes an ironic turn.

LINA’S DIARY is as much a suspenseful study of the human psyche, as it is a contemporary moral tale about prejudice and redemption, and the collateral damage that comes with it.