City of Tiny Lights (2016)

In the teeming, multicultural metropolis of modern-day London, a seemingly straightforward missing-person case launches a down-at-heel private eye into a dangerous world of religious fanaticism and political intrigue.

Director:

Pete Travis

Writer:

Patrick Neate

Stars:

Riz Ahmed, Billie Piper, James Krishna Floyd

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Riz Ahmed	...	Tommy Akhtar
Billie Piper	...	Shelley
James Krishna Floyd	...	Lovely (as James Floyd)
Cush Jumbo	...	Melody
Roshan Seth	...	Farzad Akhtar
Hannah Rae	...	Emma
Antonio Aakeel	...	Young Lovely
Reiss Kershi	...	Young Tommy
Vincent Regan	...	Tall Man / Schaeffer
Danny Webb	...	DS Cal Donnely
Ram John Holder	...	Trinidad Pete
Damson Idris	...	Hakim
Branko Tomovic	...	Big John
George Sargeant	...	Stuart
Alexander Siddig	...	Al-Dabaran

Storyline

'City Of Tiny Lights' is a witty gumshoe in contemporary (sub)urban London. When Asian Private Eye, Tommy Akhtar, is put on the trail of missing hooker, Sexy Russian, he begins to expose a series of dark secrets that reveal uncomfortable truths about Tommy's own past and London itself.

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Plot Keywords:

father son relationship | cancer | family home | hotel room | hotel | 

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Taglines:

People call me a snoop. They call me a lot worse. Broken marriages, missing kids. Nothing major, just the sacred and profane.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to director Pete Travis, Riz Ahmed was his only choice for the lead role, and wouldn't have done the film if Ahmed had refused. Luckily, Ahmed accepted the role, and by the time the film went into production, his clout as an actor had increased dramatically.

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Soundtracks

Moussa 2
By David Bradnum
De Wolfe

User Reviews

Gumshoe

A contemporary hard boiled private detective neo noir thriller set in London.

The voiceover is provided by Tommy Akhtar (Riz Ahmed) looking after his cricket mad dad (Roshan Seth.) He is a hard drinking, chain smoking rather dinghy private eye in London.

A prostitute called Melody (Cush Jumbo) hires him to find fellow prostitute Natasha who has gone missing after going off with a new client. Tommy finds the client dead in a hotel room.

As Tommy delves deeper he comes across an old friend, who is now a wealthy property developer, trying to take the drug riddled estates, upmarket. The dead client was an associate of this developer. Tommy soon finds the security services sniffing around him. The dead man was also hanging around an imam who might be radicalising the youth, he certainly has a little gang who is chasing away drug dealers.

As the film goes on, Tommy recalls his past, 20 years ago when he fancied his best mate's girl Shelley (Billie Piper.) We gather his mate died but he sees Shelley again who is now a single mother and both rekindle their affections for each other.

There is nothing too original about City of Tiny Lights, we can sort of guess who will turn out to be the culprit. It all feels a little bleak and jagged. The movie needed more humour and should had been more offbeat. Albert Finney got it right in Stephen Frears 'Gumshoe' back in 1971.

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 July 2017 (USA)

Also Known As:

City of Tiny Lights

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

GBP3,000,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$54,903

Company Credits

Production Co:

BBC Films, MEDIA Programme of the European Union, UK Film Council

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1