This is England

It's 1983 and school is out. Twelve-year-old Shaun is a lonely boy growing up in a grim coastal town in northern England, whose father died fighting in the Falklands War. Over the course of the summer holiday he befriends a group of local skinheads. With his pent-up rage and frustration, Shaun finds exactly what he needs in the gang-mischief, mayhem and brotherhood. He also meets the volatile and boorish Combo, an older skinhead who sees himself in Shaun. Adopting Shaun as his protege, Combo leads the gang down a hate-spewing path that culminates in an irreversible act of violence.

“There is scarcely a false note in writer-director Shane Meadows’ semi-autobiographical drama about a withdrawn, fatherless boy coming of age in Thatcherite England.” (Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly)

“A modest, near-flawless gem, This Is England is a humbly, if insistently political, autobiographical homage to a lost world of youth.” (Manohla Dargis, New York Times)

“It's one of the simplest and best re-creations of downscale urban England during the gritty post-punk years ever put on screen, and it's both upsetting and very funny.” (Andrew O’Hehir, salon.com)