Mike (Frank Dillane) has been sleeping rough on the mean streets of north London for five years. He attempts to turn his life around following a short prison sentence for robbery, securing a room in a hostel, and a job in a restaurant as a commis chef. But old habits die hard, and repressed urges soon reassert themselves. Harris Dickinson’s confident, raw, and thoroughly engaging directorial debut offers an authentic, sympathetic portrait of a homeless drug addict, brilliantly portrayed by Frank Dillane. Urchin raises challenging questions about systemic barriers and individual accountability without offering easy resolutions. Dickinson balances his unvarnished depiction of life on the margins of society with some boldly creative visual flourishes that elevate the potentially sombre material into something entirely unexpected.

Notes by David O’Mahony