THIS IS ENGLAND

Written and directed by Shane Meadows

Thomas Turgoose
Joe Gilgun
Andrew Shim
Vicky McClure
Stephen Graham

Premiere date: September 12, 2006 (Toronto Film Festival)
NR

After being bullied at school, 11-year-old Shaun comes across a small band of Skinheads lead by Woody, a charismatic and benevolent teenager who befriends the boy immediately. Bringing him into the fold as one of their own, Woody quickly initiates Shaun as a Skinhead to the dismay of his widowed mother. Having lost his father in the Falklands War, Shaun gleefully embraces his new found friends (and look) until the group is split with the arrival of Combo, an older, nationalist skinhead just released from prison.

Once friends, now bitter rivals, Combo and Woody divide the group along political lines. Blaming England's economic woes, growing unemployment and post-war grievances on the influx of foreign minorities, Combo persuades Shaun and other members of the pack to make a stand, preserving England for the English. In his contempt for others, Combo begins to reveal his own emotional battles with loss, loneliness and isolation. When his romantic advances are later rebuffed by Woody's girlfriend and former fling, Lol, Combo turns his hate, envy and prejudicial rage against one member of the group to disastrous effect, and Shaun's viewpoint in changed in an instant.