SHIFTY
UK, 2008, 86 minutes, Colour.
Riz Ahmed, Daniel Mays, Jason Flemyng, Nitin Ganatra, Jay Simpson, Danielle Brent, Francesca Annis.
Directed by Eran Creevy.
A day in the life of... Actually, the crucial day in the life of... Shifty.
Shifty (Riz Ahmed) comes from a Pakistani family in London. He was a top student at school but has opted for the seeming easy life of drug dealing for £3000 a week. He is cool and casual about it, able to bully his obstreperous clients and act the smart man with other dealers. Can it last?
The film, which the writer director says is based on one of his school friends and his career, says that it can't. It is a warning film about drugs, addiction and degradation, but it is not too overtly preachy, but relies on its storytelling.
Shifty's friend, Chris (Daniel Mays) comes down from Manchester after a four year absence when his girlfriend died of an overdose. He accompanies Shifty on his rounds. The characters they encounter include Shifty's devout and concerned brother who is urging him to visit his parents, a builder who is hooked on cocaine and has lost his job and will lost his long-suffering wife and children, another dealer (Jason Flemyng) who has a more than sinister side, and a couple of other addicts, including an ageing pensioner (Francesca Annis).
There is a sense of credible realism about the characters, the settings and the behaviour of the main characters which keeps the interest as well as fostering the growing dismay about the too cocksure Shifty who is about to learn that he has not chosen a charmed profession and life.
1.Small-budget feature, from the United Kingdom, slice-of-life, the drug world? In suburbia?
2.The locations and the sense of realism, the streets and houses, ordinary? The musical score?
3.Twenty-four hours in the life of Shifty? Chris’s arrival, the audience arriving with him, meeting Shifty? The puzzle about him and his drugs career, accompanying him during the day, his relationship with his brother, clients, sure of himself, failing, the crisis, his ultimate decision?
4.Chris and the four years in Manchester, the background of his girlfriend and her death, his responsibility, leaving? Change, working in Manchester? His return for the party? The implications of his absence? The accusations by Rez? His friendship with Shifty, his observing him, his memories, dismay at Shifty’s choice of career, their clashes, urging Shifty to change?
5.Shifty’s background: at school, successful student, his decision to deal drugs, three thousand pounds a week? The range of clients, his being cocksure and smart, Chris’s arrival and his surprise, the four years, the explanation? Rez and his being a devout Muslim, praying in the house? The house as sacred? Shifty hiding the drugs from his brother? Their parents, Shifty promising to visit, not going? The meetings with Glen, the deals, the loose talk, Glen betraying him? Trevor coming to the house? His avoiding Trevor? The visit to Valerie? Supplying her with drugs in her old age? Trevor and his friend finding him? Trevor’s attack, the knifepoint, robbing his money, the drugs, his concern? Glen and the discussions, being taped, being heard by the boss? Desperate, the gun, his brother flushing the drugs down the toilet? His throwing the gun away, going with Chris? A new life in Manchester?
6.Trevor, going to the job site, being dismissed? At home, beginning his day, his wife and children, the argument with Bob, going to Shifty’s door, his needs, the phone calls to his wife, the lies? Meeting his friend, becoming desperate, spilling the beer on the drugs? Finding Shifty, his desperation, the knife, the robbery? The friend and the video cameras, giving it to his wife? The plan for the holiday, the credit card exhausted? Her pregnancy? Her discovering the drugs in the bathroom? Preparing to abandon him?
7.Valerie, an old lady, lonely, doing drugs all her life?
8.Glen, his deals, smart, his friend, the girl drugged? His sneering at Shifty as a Pakistani? His comeuppance, the boss, tied up and tortured?
9.The boss, his henchmen, black? With Glen? With Shifty? Hearing the tape? The violence to Glen?
10.A picture of twenty-four hours in London, drugs, realistic, the non-sensationalist style, a film about desperate people? A warning?
