I AM URBAN

A hard living, disillusioned, ex-social worker becomes the unlikely saviour of an anarchic, joy-riding, drug taking, thieving, out of control gang of care home runaways.

​An eye-opening, jaw-dropping account of Britain's dispossessed youth and inner city wastelands by an insider, as funny and inspiring as it is heartbreaking.

“Another City of God, this time for Britain rather than Brazil.”
(The Observer)

Eleven-year old Urban Grimshaw is Britain’s most runaway child, he’s even been on TV’s Crimewatch. His mother is a junkie, he can’t read or write and he doesn’t go to school. His average day is spent sitting round a bonfire with his mates smoking drugs and stealing cars. When he meets his mother’s new friend ‘Chop’, a 37 year old, disillusioned, ex-social worker also living on society’s margins, on one of Leeds’ roughest estates, the two become firm friends.

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But even ‘Chop’ with his own penchant for drink, drugs and hard living is shocked by the state of Urban’s life. After much soul searching, he resolves to clean up his own act and do his utmost to save the kid. As their friendship deepens, Urban introduces him to the Shed Crew – the anarchic gang of kids between the ages of ten and fourteen; joy-riding, thieving runaways, no strangers to drugs or sex and it’s only then that we see exactly how long the road to civilisation really is.

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When ex-social worker Bernard Hare turned his startling experiences with a group of young delinquents into the novel “Urban Grimshaw and The Shed Crew”, it was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize and described as one of the year’s most compelling books. “I Am Urban” is a shocking, heartbreaking, funny and inspiring film which exposes the distressing life of the underclass in 90s Britain.

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PRODUCER: CIRCADIAN PICTURES in association with BLENHEIM FILMS

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