An epic story scaled down to reflect the realities of modern life in the inner city. Bullet Boy combines style and substance to explore age-old themes of rebellion, rivalry and revenge from a unique northeast London slant.
The plot centres around 12-year-old Curtis and his older brother Ricky, two black boys growing up in Hackney, one of the most socially deprived areas in the country. It’s a volatile atmosphere where the slightest flare of emotions can set off a ripple of events that threatens to tear a family and a community apart.
Fresh out of a Young Offenders Institute, Ricky is trying to stay on the straight and narrow but almost immediately gets caught up in a street clash involving his best friend Wisdom and a local bad boy.
This minor confrontation quickly escalates into a series of tit for tat incidents that spirals out of control with devastating consequences. It is only a matter of time before Curtis, eager to follow in his older brother’s footsteps, gets drawn into the cycle of violence that has claimed so many urban teenagers before their time.
Produced by Marc Boothe Nubian Tales and leading media arts lab B3 Media and multiple award-winner Ruth Caleb The Other Boleyn Girl, Tomorrow La Scala, Last Resort
Associate director of photography: Marcel Zyskind (Code 46, In This World) Editor: Masahiro Hirakubo (Trainspotting, A Life Less Ordinary and The Beach
Bullet Boy is a BBC Films, UK Film Council New Cinema Fund and Shine Entertainment Limited production and is distributed in the UK by Verve Pictures
