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Airings
Bad boys
Always one to engage
with the bad boys,
Stephen Blake recently came across
the film Shank, the latest offering
from TLA Releasing.
Worlds collide as the
lives of Cal and Olivier intersect in
Shank, a rites-of-passage/coming-of-age
drama written by Darren Flaxstone and
Christian Martin, and directed by Simon
Pearce.
Shank is a gritty
British-made and -located film that tackles
the issues of homophobia and coming to terms
with one’s sexuality. “A bit
like [Noel Clarke’s] KiDULTHOOD but
with a gay twist,” according to one of its
stars, Tom Bott, Shank depicts an
unflinching view of a London teenager’s
life.
Scally lads, plots and teenage sex
Cal (Wayne Virgo), an
18-year-old Scally lad and gang member has
nothing in his life except drugs, sex,
random acts of violence and a secret that he
keeps hidden from his mates. An online hook
up for sex with a stranger, Scott (36),
temporarily satisfies but fails to dampen
his unspoken desires for his best mate,
Jonno (Tom Bott). Nessa (Alice Payne), their
twisted, foul-mouthed and controlling,
de-facto gang leader, suspects that there is
something going on between them but she
can’t put her finger on it. Jonno, putty in
Nessa’s hands, can’t express his own
deep-rooted and unrequited attachment to
Cal. Manipulating situations that bring her
closer to having her suspicions confirmed,
Nessa sets out dividing loyalties and
encouraging conflict.
For no good reason, an innocent student,
19-year-old Olivier (Marc Laurent), falls
victim to one of her plans and is mugged on
her orders by the gang. Cal steps in to
restrain them and creates a distraction
allowing Olivier to run free. Ignoring
Nessa’s screams of contempt, Cal chases
after him and offers him a lift by way of an
apology. Fearing that the fall-out from
Nessa for his actions will be harsh, he
persuades Olivier to help him out. Seizing
the moral high ground and sensing that there
was something more to Cal’s Good Samaritan
act, Olivier allows Cal to stay with him for
a few days.
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Acting on his own
attraction to Cal, Olivier seduces him and,
in doing so, exposes Cal to new emotions and
a tenderness that he has never experienced
before. Very soon, they are overtaken by the
embrace of the first flush of love.
Nessa can’t contain her rage for Cal’s
disloyalty to the gang and sets about
hunting him down, intent on destroying him
once and for all. With her gang in tow and
Jonno tightly wound up, she kidnaps Olivier,
taunting Cal with video messages via her
mobile phone, to come and save his
boyfriend.
Sexual
aggression
Arriving at the abandoned
factory where they are all waiting for him,
Cal squares up to Nessa and Jonno. As the
showdown unfolds, Nessa loses all control of
events and Jonno explodes in an act of
sexual aggression that leaves no one
unscathed and everyone traumatised. Shocked
by what she has witnessed, Nessa realises
she will now never be able to break the bond
between Cal and Olivier.
Shank,
which was recently released on DVD, has been
gathering critical acclaim all over the
festival circuit, and one of its stars in
particular, Tom Bott, is definitely one to
watch. As well as being an actor, Bott is
also a writer, having recently completed the
screenplay for Tender Rage, a film in
which he also stars.
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