Shifty – 2008 | 85 mins | Drama | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Former pop-promo director Eran Creevy makes an accomplished feature debut with this non-judgement and cautionary tale of youthful hope squandered as two juvenile friends are reunited. Creey’s sympathetic vision of the urban drama reinvigorates a stale genre and convincingly deals with family loyalty, the bonds of friendship, thwarted ambition, alienation and youthful naivety.

Shifty (Riz Ahmed) is a young crack cocaine dealer living on a council estate the outskirts of London. The sudden return home from Manchester of his best friend sets in motion a chain of events that see Shifty’s life quickly spiral out of control. Stalked by a customer desperate to score at all costs, and with his family about to turn their back on him for good, Shifty must out-run and out-smart a rival drug dealer intent on setting him up. As his long time friend Chris (Daniel Mays) confronts the dark past he left behind him, Shifty is forced to face up to the violent future he’s heading fast towards.