Release CalendarTop 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV News
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsABFFPride MonthOutfest OutfrontsSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • All
  • Titles
  • TV Episodes
  • Celebs
  • Companies
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
Sign In
New Customer? Create account
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

Bigga Than Ben

  • 2008
  • 1h 22m
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
1.3K
YOUR RATING
Bigga Than Ben (2008)
Drama

Spiker & Cobakka are two self-confessed 'pieces of Moscow scum' who come to London to rip it off. This is their guide.Spiker & Cobakka are two self-confessed 'pieces of Moscow scum' who come to London to rip it off. This is their guide.Spiker & Cobakka are two self-confessed 'pieces of Moscow scum' who come to London to rip it off. This is their guide.

  • Director
    • S.A. Halewood
  • Writers
    • S.A. Halewood
    • Sergey Sakin
    • Pavel Teterskiy
  • Stars
    • Ben Barnes
    • Andrey Chadov
    • Ovidiu Matesan
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    6.2/10
    1.3K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • S.A. Halewood
    • Writers
      • S.A. Halewood
      • Sergey Sakin
      • Pavel Teterskiy
    • Stars
      • Ben Barnes
      • Andrey Chadov
      • Ovidiu Matesan
    • 7User reviews
    • 16Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 win & 1 nomination

    Photos

    Ovidiu Matesan in Bigga Than Ben (2008)
    Andrey Chadov, Ben Barnes, and Ovidiu Matesan in Bigga Than Ben (2008)
    Andrey Chadov and Ben Barnes in Bigga Than Ben (2008)
    Bigga Than Ben (2008)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Ben Barnes
    Ben Barnes
    • Cobakka
    Andrey Chadov
    • Spiker
    Ovidiu Matesan
    Ovidiu Matesan
    • Artash
    Terence Anderson
    • Sad Jamaican
    Andrew Byron
    Andrew Byron
    • Sergei
    Mary-Ann Cafferkey
    • Cashback Tesco Girl
    Cecilia Colby
    • Beautiful Aussie Girl
    Naomi Cooper-Davis
    • Aussie Girl
    Amy De Bhrún
    Amy De Bhrún
    • Bookshop Girl
    Mervyn Etienne
    • Tube worker
    Hero Fiennes Tiffin
    Hero Fiennes Tiffin
    • Spartak
    • (as Hero Fiennes-Tiffin)
    Oliver Houston
    • Russian Gangster
    Ed Ismail
    • Afghani Man
    • (as Ed Keates)
    Dado Jehan
    • Dodgy phone dealer
    Alex Lawler
    • Phone salesman
    Rad Lazar
    • Raoul the bookseller
    Tunde Makinde
    • Nigerian Bank Clerk
    Jeff Mirza
    Jeff Mirza
    • Dennis
    • Director
      • S.A. Halewood
    • Writers
      • S.A. Halewood
      • Sergey Sakin
      • Pavel Teterskiy
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    More like this

    Locked In
    4.7
    Locked In
    By the Gun
    4.8
    By the Gun
    Killing Bono
    6.3
    Killing Bono
    Easy Virtue
    6.6
    Easy Virtue
    Exposed
    6.6
    Exposed
    7.8
    Split Decision
    Sons of Liberty
    7.4
    Sons of Liberty
    Gold Digger
    6.7
    Gold Digger
    Dorian Gray
    6.2
    Dorian Gray
    The Big Wedding
    5.6
    The Big Wedding
    Cleaning Up
    6.3
    Cleaning Up
    The Words
    7.0
    The Words

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Amy De Bhrún's debut.
    • Connections
      Referenced in Day in a Life 2016 LP Low Res (2016)
    • Soundtracks
      Kontrabandy
      Written and performed by Ilya Lagutenko

    User reviews7

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    A comedy about two 'pieces of Russian scum' shows that scrounging off the system in the UK is neither easy nor lucrative
    Best friends Cobakka and Spiker are two self-confessed 'pieces of Russian scum', who decide to dodge the draft at home and instead head to London to rip off England – or 'foggy Albion', as Russians apparently like to call it.

    Based on Bol'she Ben, the best-selling diaries of Pavel Tetersky and Sergei Sakin, Bigga Than Ben is a low-budget, un-PC black comedy about two young Muscovites who couldn't care less either about confirming or challenging stereotypes about immigrants – but who end up doing both.

    'Shameless? Yes. Greedy? Yes. Fraudsters? Yes!' gloats Cobakka. He and his partner in crime have a simple plan when they come to England: set up a bank account, get a chequebook, start raking in money by cashing dodgy cheques, then go back to Moscow – Cobakka to start a band, Spiker to marry his girlfriend.

    While they don't mind being seen as petty criminals and fraudsters, the two friends don't take well to being mistaken for 'asylum seekers' or 'refugees'. The streetwise twentysomethings may be mixing with lowlifes, but they don't want anything to do with the huddled masses. They want to live it up, cash in and make it big.

    But what would a comedy about two young, freeloading Muscovites in London be without an adventure that doesn't quite go according to plan? The two Russian luck-seekers seem like a tabloid sub's wet dream. 'Russian welfare tourists come to London to rip off the system and sleep with our women' might be the headline for their adventures.

    But despite their optimistic belief that the presumption of innocence in the English legal system will work in their favour, 'the system' turns out to be a bureaucratic quagmire and everything from getting a meal at a homeless shelter to opening a bank account and flirting with English girls is a trial. To get a chequebook you need a bank account. To set up a bank account you need a proof of income and a utility bill. For that you need accommodation. But to rent a flat you need a job so you can afford the deposit. To get a job, you need a work permit… And so on.

    Until Cobakka and Spiker manage to lay their hands on the magic money tickets – chequebooks and cashback – the two illegal immigrants busy themselves with fine-tuning their skills in shoplifting, sofa surfing, turnstile hopping and heroin cooking.

    They hook up with Artash, the son of a Russian oligarch who, in Cobakka's and Spiker's minds at least, speaks English in an 'Oxford accent'. Artash teaches the scamming rookies some basic lessons in small-time crookery and introduces them to every drug known to London.

    Apart from intermittent moments of happiness wandering around London's grand tourist sites and sunbathing on Primrose Hill in the affluent suburb of Hampstead, the two friends find themselves scraping at the bottom of London's multicultural melting pot. After sleeping rough in a garden shed, they move into a stinking flat in a high-rise council estate. No amount of scrubbing of the carpets and wallpaper, which appear not to have been changed since the 1970s, can remove the stench, which the guys conclude must come from the Asian curry houses and market stalls outside.

    At the start, they are unapologetically racist, but after cleaning toilets, cooking and getting stoned with people of all nationalities, their minds seem to broaden. 'How could I ever have imagined that I, a Moscow hooligan and Nazi, would become a Negro lover?', Cobakka asks in wonderment.

    Some people argue that the most ferocious opponents to immigration are immigrants and descendents of immigrants, and that most racist tension is found among ethnic minorities. A couple of years ago, the then chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, Trevor Phillips, complained that East Europeans are bringing with them '1950s attitudes' towards black people.

    On the surface, Bigga Than Ben appears to confirm Phillips' stereotype, but in the end it shows that the tensions that exist between those who inhabit the crowded and unglamorous side of London stem from people living cheek-by-jowl in poor conditions rather than being a consequence of immigrants' unreconstructed, racist worldviews.

    The DIY, MTV feel of this fast-paced and gag-filled film is entirely appropriate for a rough guide to how to not make it in London. At times the film's knowing style is grating – as when the plot is interrupted by characters explaining the various goings-on to the camera. But a highlight is Cobakka's and Spiker's bamboozlement in a meeting with a thickly accented Irish employment officer. They can't understand a word of what the man is saying ('Do you two speak English?', the employment officer demands impatiently. 'Yes. Do you?' reply the Russians.) Eventually Cobakka and Spiker ask for subtitles, and it becomes clear both to them and to the audience what the man is on about.

    Bigga Than Ben bears little resemblance to the celebrations of multiculturalism we have gotten used to, but despite being an irreverent satire it is perhaps a more honest look at interracial London and how many immigrants fare in Britain. It also gives the lie to myths about Britain being a 'welfare magnet' where illegal immigrants can get rich by ripping off the system.

    by Nathalie Rothschild -- Nathalie Rothschild is commissioning editor of spiked.
    helpful•13
    5
    • intern-88
    • Oct 15, 2008

    Top picks

    Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations
    Sign in

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 10, 2008 (United Kingdom)
    • Country of origin
      • United Kingdom
    • Official site
      • Official site
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Больше Бена
    • Filming locations
      • London, England, UK
    • Production companies
      • Bigga than Ben
      • Gas Station 8
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross worldwide
      • $508,673
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 22 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

    Related news

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    Bigga Than Ben (2008)
    Top Gap
    By what name was Bigga Than Ben (2008) officially released in Canada in English?
    Answer
    • See more gaps
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
    • Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • IMDb Developer
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2023 by IMDb.com, Inc.