The Kid (The Kid)
World Panorama
Nick Moran / Feature Narrative / U.K. / 2010 / 100 min / Color / 35 mm
In English / Arabic subtitles
Interests: Adaptation, Biography, Drama
Middle East Premiere
Synopsis
This inspirational drama based on the best selling autobiography by crime writer Kevin Lewis depicts a young man's escape from a brutal upbringing on a London council estate to his emergence as a bestselling author. Starring Rupert Friend and Natascha McElhone, the film was directed by Nick Moran, who previously tackled biographical fare with "Telstar: The Joe Meek Story" (2008). Moran, who himself was raised on a London council estate - that is, a concentrated, often neglected tract of public housing - brought his own sensibility and recollections to the project. As he told one interviewer, "It's Slumdog Millionaire set in Croydon. Or as the Americans who've seen it said, "It's like Precious but with skinny white people." Moran decided against making his film into an overly bleak weepie, calculating that the ultimate success enjoyed by the main character will appeal to women as well as blokes.
About the Directors
Nick Moran
An actor as well as a director and writer, Moran is probably best remembered as Eddy the card shark in the British gangster film "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels." He also directed and co-wrote the film "Telstar: The Joe Meek Story," a biopic of the Sixties rock producer. "The Kid" is Moran's second directorial credit.
Credits
- Director
- Nick Moran
- Screenwriter
- Kevin Lewis, Nick Moran
- Producer
- Judith Hunt
- Editor
- Trevor Waite
- Director of Photography
- Peter Wignall
- Production Designer
- Russel De Rozario
- Executive Producer
- Stephen May, Kevin Lewis, Edward Atkinson
- Cast
- Rupert Friend, Augustus Prew, William Finn Miller, Natascha McElhone, Ioan Gruffudd, Jodie Whitaker, Con O'Neill