Imperial Dreams

Bambi comes out of prison and returns to Watts in Los Angeles, the neighbourhood he grew up in. He wants to be a writer; he has pages he wrote inside. His small son is with him; the boy's mother is in prison. Bambi tries to build a proper life and every door is shut. To get work he needs a licence, to get the licence he must clear unpaid child support, and to clear it he needs work. His uncle suggests he go back to the old business. Malik Vitthal directs. John Boyega plays Bambi. It is the director's first film and screened at the Sundance festival in 2014. The subject is not crime but the system. Bambi wants to do nothing unlawful, and the film shows the obstacles in front of him one by one in bureaucratic detail; that circle is the engine of the narrative. John Boyega made this before appearing in a large science fiction series and it counts among his most measured performances. The relationship between father and son is at the centre; the child is given not as a symbol but as someone who has to be fed and watched, which is the film's most realistic side. Watts is used as a real place and the narrative neither romanticises nor demonises it. Who it is for: viewers who like American independent drama and social realist narrative. Who it is not for: there is little hope, the circle repeats, and the film offers no easy resolution.