The Fence

The film is set at the start of the eighties. The place is a council estate called Hartcliffe in Bristol. Steven Knight is a working-class lad. He saves for a long time and buys a motorbike. But the bike is stolen the day he buys it. Steven will not accept it. He goes after it with his friends. His friends are the same sort of loose ends he is. They have to find it before it is gone for good. The search takes them into the darker corners of the estate. The account is built on that pursuit. The film runs drama and comedy together. David Perkins and Sally Phillips take the leads in William Stone’s British film of 2022.