Somers Town (2008)

Director:

Shane Meadows

Writer:

Paul Fraser (written by)

Release Date:

15 July 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

A black-and-white study of a social environment in London, concentrating on a pair of unlikely new friends and the girl they both fancy.

Plot Keywords:

Friendship | Train Station | Unrequited Love | French Girl | Place Name In Title

Awards:

1 win & 4 nominations

Cast

Piotr Jagiello	...	Marek
Ireneusz Czop	...	Mariusz
Perry Benson	...	Graham
Thomas Turgoose	...	Tomo
Kate Dickie	...	Jane
Wojciech Olczak	...	Polish Friend
Wojtek Macierznski	...	Polish Friend
Ben Porter	...	Office Worker
Jamie Belman	...	Office Worker
Steve Hillman	...	Construction Worker
Mark Monero	...	Construction Worker
Ryan Ford	...	Local Kid
Levi Hayes	...	Local Kid
Risade Campbell	...	Local Kid
Huggy Leaver	...	Cafe Owner

Runtime:

71 min | Germany:75 min (Berlin International Film Festival)

Country:

UK

Language:

English | Polish | French

Color:

Color | Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

UK:12A | Sweden:7 | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Champ de Mars, Paris 7, Paris, France

Company:

Mother Vision

Trivia:

When Maria is speaking to the French man in the café where she works, the man is in fact talking about his digestion problems.

Cute? Hardly - A Powerful Commentary on Contemporary England

Others have written that this film is a cute coming-of-age platonic love story. Well, that's one way of viewing the film. Another more direct reading is to look at the relationships between the white English and the immigrants (Polish and French). Both sets of people are portrayed somewhat stereotypically. The white English are Del Boy wideboys, lazy, rude, chavlike, selfish, self-centred, always on the scrounge, moaning, violent, loutish and drunk. The immigrants are decent hard-working people with a moral compass, who know what's right and what's wrong. Despite these stereotypical characters, this is an amazingly powerful film.

I'm a white middle-class English man and I've spent a lot of my life living in inner cities (London, Manchester, Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Milton Keynes). You know what? - these stereotypes rang (frighteningly) true to me. The film captured many of my frustrations with the way that the English national culture has changed; less tolerant, less considerate, less welcoming, more something-for-nothing. This is England today. The film made me feel ashamed of what we have become.

I left the cinema saddened; thinking that England could once again become a great country to live in if only we could remove all the bloody English.