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''Hyena'' is a 2014 British
neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating ...
crime thriller film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...
written and directed by Gerard Johnson.


Plot

Michael Logan is a
detective sergeant Sergeant (abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other uni ...
in
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, working as part of a specialised taskforce alongside his friends and colleagues Chris, Martin and Keith. The taskforce's unconventional and corrupt operations bring the officers into contact with European drug syndicates, with them happy to turn a blind eye to their dealings for either a cut, or electing to confiscate suppliers' merchandise for their own profit. Logan meets with a contact in a
Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...
drug cartel, who is organising a large scale shipment that he has invested £100,000 into with the hope of netting an even better profit. However, during the meeting his contact is ambushed and attacked by members of a rival
Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...
gang, run by the Kabashi brothers, looking to expand their power. Logan meets with and aims to provide the Albanians with the same service he provided the Turks, but they aren't easily led. Meanwhile, he and his colleagues are being investigated by the Professional Standards Department, headed up by Detective Inspector Nick Taylor. Complicating matters further, Logan is seconded from the Taskforce to a new operation run by the vice unit, aiming at investigating the Kabashi's involvement in
people trafficking Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. This may encompass providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage, or the extracti ...
. It is headed up by DI David Knight, a former friend and colleague of Logans who he fell out with a decade prior.


Cast

*
Peter Ferdinando Peter Ferdinando is a British character actor, known for his varied performances. He has collaborated extensively with director and cousin Gerard Johnson (director), Gerard Johnson, playing the title role in the critically acclaimed Tony (2009 f ...
as DS Michael Logan, West London Police Taskforce *
Tony Pitts Anthony Pitts (born 10 October 1962) is an English actor, most notable for playing Archie Brooks in the long-running British soap ''Emmerdale Farm'' between 1983 and 1993. Early life Pitts was born in Sheffield, England. His family was wor ...
as Keith, West London Police Taskforce *
Neil Maskell Neil Maskell (born 1976) is an English actor, writer and director who is known for his appearances in British crime and horror films such as '' The Football Factory'' and ''Kill List''. Early life Maskell was born in London. As a youth, he pl ...
as Martin, West London Police Taskforce * Thomas Craig as DCI Harrison, Head of West London Police Taskforce *
Stephen Graham Stephen Joseph Graham (born 3 August 1973) is a British actor. He is best known for playing Andrew "Combo" Gascoigne in the film ''This Is England'' (2006) and its television sequels ''This Is England '86'' (2010), '' This Is England '88'' ( ...
as DI David Knight, West London Police CSO14 *
Richard Dormer Richard Dormer (born 11 November 1969) is an actor, playwright and screenwriter from Northern Ireland. He is best known for his roles as Beric Dondarrion in the HBO television series ''Game of Thrones'' and Dan Anderssen in Sky Atlantic's '' ...
as DI Nick Taylor, West London Police
Professional Standards National Occupational Standards (NOS), also known as professional standards, specify UK standards of performance that people are expected to achieve in their work, and the knowledge and skills they need to perform effectively. NOS, which are appr ...
*Lorenzo Camporese as DS John Noonan, West London Police Professional Standards *
MyAnna Buring MyAnna Buring (; born 22 September 1979 as Anna Margaretha My Rantapää) is a Swedish actress, known for her roles in ''The Descent'', ''Kill List'', '' The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1'' and '' Part 2'', ''Ripper Street'', ''The Witc ...
as Lisa, a close friend of Michael *
Orli Shuka Orli Shuka (born 27 May 1976) is a British-Albanian actor best known for his role as Luan, head of the Albanian mafia Albanian mafia or Albanian organized crime ( sq, Mafia Shqiptare) are the general terms used for criminal organizations bas ...
as Nikolla Kabashi, an Albanian gangster *Gjevat Kelmendi as Rezar Kabashi, an Albanian gangster *
Elisa Lasowski Elisa Wald-Lasowski (born 15 November 1984) is a French actress, most notable for her film and television work. She grew up in the Netherlands, Algeria and France. She is fluent in French, English, Spanish, Dutch and German. Acting Lasowski has ...
as Ariana, an Albanian woman trafficked by the Kabashi's *
Mehmet Ferda Mem Ferda (born 30 October 1963 in London) is a British actor and film producer of Turkish Cypriot descent. Biography Ferda was born in Chelsea, London in 1963 to Turkish Cypriot parents. At the age of six, his mother took him to Cyprus, where ...
as Akif Dikman, a Turkish criminal


Release

''Hyena'' was the opening film at the 2014
Edinburgh Film Festival The Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) is a film festival that runs for two weeks in June each year. Established in 1947, it is the world's oldest continually running film festival. EIFF presents both UK and international films (all ti ...
and later in 2014 was shown at the
Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...
.
Tribeca Tribeca (), originally written as TriBeCa, is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. Its name is a syllabic abbreviation of "Triangle Below Canal Street". The "triangle" (more accurately a quadrilateral) is bounded by Canal Stre ...
acquired North American rights to the film. It ran on 24 April 2015 as part of the
Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...
.


Reception

On
review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 78% based on 45 reviews, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Sinking in with as much baleful bite as its namesake, ''Hyena'' offers a dark, stylish, and impressively gritty addition to the British crime genre."


Accolades

''Hyena'' won the main Jury prize at Beaune Film Festival 2015, Best Film At 2014's
Sitges Film Festival The Sitges Film Festival ( ca, Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya, links=no) is an annual film festival held in Sitges, Spain, specialized in fantasy and horror films, of which it is considered one of the world's foremost in ...
's Fantàstic Òrbita section and at Les Arcs European Cinema Festival,
Peter Ferdinando Peter Ferdinando is a British character actor, known for his varied performances. He has collaborated extensively with director and cousin Gerard Johnson (director), Gerard Johnson, playing the title role in the critically acclaimed Tony (2009 f ...
won the Métronews Best Actor award for his performance in ''Hyena''.


Soundtrack

The soundtrack to Hyena was composed and recorded by Matt Johnson under the moniker
The The () are an English post-punk band. They have been active in various forms since 1979, with singer-songwriter Matt Johnson being the only constant band member. achieved critical acclaim and commercial success in the UK, with 15 chart singles ...
, his British post-punk genre-busting band known more recently for a series of parallel soundtrack works. Matt is the brother of writer and director Gerard Johnson, and has provided soundtrack input to many of his brother's earlier works including short film Mug and the feature-length
Tony Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leagu ...
. The soundtrack is a genre-crossing piece rooted in early electronica and ambient genres with a central European influence to reflect the origins of the main villain protagonists.


References


External links


Hyena
at British Council–Film
Hyena
at
BFI The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...

Hyena
at Lumiere * {{IMDb title, 1837574 2014 films 2014 crime thriller films British crime thriller films Films about police corruption Films about corruption in the United Kingdom Film4 Productions films Number 9 Films films Films set in London 2010s English-language films 2010s British films