Andrew Hulme is an editor who has worked with Anton Corbijn, Paul McGuigan and Bart Layton. Now he makes his directing debut with a powerful if flawed gangster drama that was selected for the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes last year. It’s a story of guilt, fear and redemption; there are ideas in this film that might have interested Graham Greene. Dave (Frederick Schmidt) is a young guy earning his spurs for an east London crime family by making “deliveries” for his very scary Uncle Jimmy (Martin Askew). But he annoys the dead-eyed racist mobsters by bringing along his mate Tariq (Aymen Hamdouchi). Dave gets greedy and secretly appropriates some of the merchandise; he is widely suspected, but protected by his family’s associations with Jimmy. Still someone has to pay. Tormented by drug abuse and loneliness, and the creeping realisation of what he has done, Dave spirals into a breakdown, a crisis that assumes a spiritual dimension when he blunders into a mosque. The film is perhaps a little contrived, and relies too much on rage and violence for its dramatic texture, but its atmosphere is well controlled and the religious theme is boldly and confidently handled. This is an accomplished debut from Hulme, who is a film-making force to be reckoned with.
