London to Brighton

It is past three in the morning. Two girls run into a public toilet in London. Kelly's face is a mess, Joanne is crying and she is eleven. Something has happened and both of them are running. What is in their pockets is enough for a ticket to Brighton. Two men are behind them; the one who took the girls to that house, and the son of the man who died. The film tells the same night forwards and backwards; how it started comes out slowly, and why the girls are running is only fully clear at the end. Paul Andrew Williams wrote and directed; it is his first feature. Georgia Groome, Lorraine Stanley, Johnny Harris and Sam Spruell are in the cast. It is a British production. Georgia Groome was fourteen during the shoot and it was her first leading role. The film won the new director award at the Edinburgh Film Festival and a production award at the British Independent Film Awards. The narrative runs on two lines; the escape and what happened that night fold into each other. The matter it treats is the abuse of a child; the film shows it plainly and makes nothing easy for the viewer. The bond between Kelly and Joanne is the only warm place in the narrative. The violence is not shot for display; the scenes are short, coarse and ugly. The budget was very small and the film was shot almost entirely in real locations. The narrative makes nobody a rescuer; every adult is looking after their own account. Its limit is the subject; the narrative is heavy, hopeless, and some scenes are hard to sit through. Who it is for: viewers who like British realist crime films. Who it is not for: the subject is heavy, the violence bare, and the ending bitter.