The Plague

In and around the council estates of London a multicultural group of friends hang around and get about their business the best way they can. Alex, Tom, Matt and Ravi all do drugs and move small quantities as well as being involved in various other illegal activity. With Matt's mum away for the weekend, the plan is to throw a party at his house, with plenty of drugs and hip hop for their friends. However a run-in with some white thugs in the afternoon and the activities of Ravi's mate Kalig threaten to disrupt the day-to-day existence of the group.

There are many interesting tales behind the making of this film and it is not fair to talk about it in any way without considering at very least how it was made. Writer and director Hall came up with the film as a reflection of the life he was living. The application for money to make the film was rejected by the Film Council and so the film was made for a budget of less than £4k, most of it borrowed from family and friends. Filming without official permissions in the most part the film used a small crew and inexperienced actors to make this. It premiered on the internet but it did win an award from Mike Leigh that has brought it more of an audience (although not much). It did help that the BBC showed it (and several other very low budget films) as part of its summer of British films recently.

The low budget does show but I mean that in the nicest possible way. The DV footage gets us close to the action and feel like it is realistic but it just isn't that pretty looking. The production standards I can understand and I had no problem with it but I did have a issue with the plotting. I like films that are close to reality and natural but for me you have to try and work a plot into that rather than having them as two separate threads of the same film, which is what it seemed had happened here. So on one hand we gets plenty of interesting "hanging around and stuff happens" scenes but then on the other we have the main plot about the police closing in on the group over fraud and theft, leading to a significant impact at the end. The actual plot doesn't flow that well and indeed is poorly delivered at the end but the naturalistic scenes are engaging in their rough and ready realism. Fortunately the closest I have ever gotten to the world of this film was living in Witton in Birmingham and hanging around with people from Ladywood but from my limited experience it all rings true and a lot is recognisable for what it is.

The acting is also rough and ready and it seems to depend on the scene. The difference is quite obvious at times. Scenes where the focus is naturalism then the cast get to just be themselves and adlib well. However when they are handed scenes required to fit into the narrative, some of them become a bit more clunky and wooden. Hall's direction is good and I will be interested to see anything he does after this on the basis of the potential (and drive) that he has shown here.

Overall then a film of strengths and weaknesses – some of which are both at the same time. Specifically the film is best in its naturalistic and rough depiction of life on London's housing estates but the narrative arch seems like an afterthought and much more could have been made of it and the film would have been significantly better for it.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

The story behind The Plague is a bit more interesting than the actual story itself, so here it is. Young film-maker Greg Hall, like many others before him, approached the Film Council to fund his debut feature and was promptly refused. Undettered, he went to all his close family and friends and managed to scrub together a mere £3,500 and his film saw the light of day after all. That's an inspiring story of hope and surviving against all odds in itself, which is more than is coming to the characters in the film.

There's no real plot here, the film just follows these four multicultural mates around as they amble their lives away on a tough South London housing estate, 'getting high and getting by.' But when the police start arresting and questioning them about their involvement in a fraud scam run by a mate of an Asian member of the group, everything threatens to fall apart. This approach has worked before, most notably in Trainspotting, but it's still dodgy to base a film around people just doing what they do rather than giving them a clear plot line to follow. It's about 15 minutes longer than normal films of this type and background, too. It's not overlong, just a bit unusual.

The characters are a bit more likable than I thought they'd be, still not the kind of people I'd like to know, but certainly not the scummy toerags I thought they'd be.

A film more heavy on image than story, then, but one you'll probably find yourself drawn into anyway, all rounded up on the end credits with Skinnyman's nice anthem Council Estate of Mind, which manages to explain more than the film actually does. ***

I'm glad I enjoyed The Plague on the level I did and I think it's the sort of film that should be seen by more than the general audience it got when it was released, ie; not many. The film is one that rests on the bottom of the pyramid in terms of production values; budget; cast and experience from all involved, but that's not to say it isn't any good. The film carries that feel, that feel that it has been made by a fresh director whose CV is about as long as someone like Steven Spielberg's is short. There are the distinct looks and tones to the film in certain scenes, the film feels like it was made by two or maybe more people given the sporadic nature of plot and ultra neo-realism meshed together to form a moving image piece.

But it's all part of the charm and I got a kick out of The Plague, principally down to the theory it attempts to insert into itself and the general good intentions it has. The Plague is the sort of film in which if you leave your brain at the door, you'll be back along shortly to collect it again as you walk out but it doesn't have to be one of these 'in your face' low budget films that are a chore to sit through for the mainstream. The film is about a group of young boys in London, early 21st Century, who work at Jewson department stores; deal drugs; drive around; have the odd encounter with hostile unknowns and hang out with each other. The event that acts as a catalyst for all this to potentially fall apart is a robbery in a bank; a withdrawal of money from a card not owned by anyone present.

This is a film made for the audience featured within the film and this can only be a good thing. It's good because it gets a culture 'into' cinema, in particular, microscopic budgeted dramas made by unknowns and starring unknowns but pretty good all the same. If you can rope in the audience featured in the film into seeing this today, tomorrow they'll be watching other urban dramas like this one before hopefully expanding into a broader sense of cinema. If the audience can see themselves on screen driving around in cars, working in departments stores and having an obvious message for most of us that 'theft and drug dealing is wrong' then all the more for it, particularly if it'll expand their thinking.

The Plague is, I think, at its core a statement on Blair's Britain. I think director Greg Hall draws inspiration from other gritty, street shot films from yesteryear in the form of La Haine and Ladri di Biciclette in the sense he goes to ground level to shoot something he hopes many will see. Politically, La Haine was shot and deliberately set on its post Parisian riot streets and Ladri di biciclette shot and consequently set in post-war Italy, The Plague takes on issues bigger than most would initially give it credit for.

Let's look at the tagline for the film: 'Welcome to the 21st Century'. An expansive and absolute tagline, a statement or an announcement of matter of fact: You have arrived, Welcome to the 21st Century. The thing here is that it is 21st Century Britain and with such a tagline followed by such a film shot on the grimy and real estates of London is trying to say something. Furthermore, the immediate opening is of an animated globe before the camera whirls round to the United Kingdom itself; stopping and going in on it. Welcome to the 21st Century and welcome to Britain. This sort of idea is revisited in the immediate ending when the same animation strikes up again and the film ends overall on an image of Tony Blair inside a mock television set. This combined with various bits and pieces such as a poster exclaiming 'End UK involvement n Iraq' found within the film make for interesting material and an interesting study – so far, one of only a few British films I've seen that tackles 'Blairism'.

But is The Plague as good as the respective French and Italian films mentioned? Of course not. But it's still a good watch. There are some inventive camera shots such the one facing front from the back seat of a car and the Tarantino 'trunk shot' rip-off in the bag looking up at those peering in. Some of the scenes in the interrogation room following the theft are tense and uneasy and there is a strong feeling of foreboding to them. The film follows Blood, a black drug dealer; Ravi (Rahman), a boy fasting for his religion and Ben Gardner (Grant) amongst others creating the multicultural aura throughout that La Haine also had. Additionally, the scenes that break off to accommodate rapping feel like another direct link.

The overall narrative is loose and often, the characters will all talk over one another in a manner that doesn't feel as if it was deliberate but comes across as it might have been in that ambiguous sense. Additionally, the dialogue isn't really dialogue it's just talking, which makes the film come across as even more neo-realistic than it perhaps either meant to be or should be. Maybe it's the director trying to force some sort of artistic look onto his work. But there are scenes that work in the film and I enjoyed more times than I thought 'Yeah, that was rubbish' which is a good thing. That on top of the theory going on to do with Blair's Britain and how he's probably more concerned with Iraq than London estates is perfectly fine; all in all, a fair effort.

The plague is a slice of life film about a group of youths in a London council estate. The use of underground music, improv, some non actors and authentic locations lend the film a real energy. Greater yet they leave the audience feeling as if they have really experienced the estate, as if they have physically visited it.

In interviews the director (Gregg Hall) has said he grew up in a similar estate like that from the film. This really comes across here. A man in the trenches view.

And to be honest this is what the film does best, as a portrait it works well.

But as a film it's a bit of a failure.

At times the acting slips. Lines are delivered poorly. Bodies become wooden. It's only here and there but it's distracting enough. The micro budget means one has to take or leave the production values - but at time shots are just plain soft and out of focus which is nothing but sloppy.

The radio DJ who seems to over see things is lifted straight from Do the right thing. In do the right thing Lee uses the character to expertly control the tone of the film. Gregg hall uses his character to preach at us. Is there anything worse than a preachy film? The director's visual style leaves us wanting. Jump cuts are the tell tale sign of a young, just out of art school director and they rear their ugly head here. Someone's drinking. Someone's doing drugs. Someone's angry – let's throw in a jump cut to show their disorientation. It's all a bit tired.

Moreover a large majority of the long takes fail. Scene's are sucked of any real bite by the unblinking camera. We all remember the intensity the long take brought in 'that scene' in secret and lies but it has the reverse effect here.

The visuals fail down to the very basics, such as framing and blocking are often very poor.

The big event ending of the film is terrible. A plot that has been almost non present suddenly pops up again for us to be 'shocked' by violence and death. Why writers/directors can never shun a clichéd ending is beyond me. Especially when we consider this film was 100% independent.

This film is a classic kitchen sink realism job. Ugly. Predictable. Nonetheless it works as a slice of life piece. Variety have said the film 'recalls the early, no-budget work of Brit director Shane Meadows' and that's the problem. This film could be compared to any realist Brit director. One formulaic film after another – just like Hollywood.