''Yardie'' is a 2018 British

crime drama 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 ...

film directed by

Idris Elba Idrissa Akuna Elba (; born 6 September 1972) is an English actor.

, in his feature directorial debut, and starring

Aml Ameen Aml Eysan Ameen (; born 30 July 1985) is a British actor. He is best known for his roles as Trevor (Trife) in ''Kidulthood'' (2006), Lewis Hardy in the ITV television series ''The Bill'', Capheus in the first season of the Netflix original seri ...

, Shantol Jackson,

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'' ( ...

, Fraser James, Sheldon Shepherd, and Everaldo Creary. It is based on the novel of the same name by Jamaican-born writer

Victor Headley Victor Headley (born 1959) is a Jamaican-born British author. He is the author of the bestselling novel ''Yardie'' (1992), which gained cult status upon publication and "heralded a new wave of black British pulp fiction". Other books by Headley in ...

. It was screened in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section at the

2018 Sundance Film Festival The 2018 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 18 to January 28, 2018. The first lineup of competition films was announced on November 29, 2017. Awards The following awards were presented: * U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Award: '' Th ...

Plot

Dennis "D" Campbell lives with his peace-loving brother Jerry Dread in 1973

West Kingston, Jamaica West Kingston is an area of Kingston, Jamaica, that includes the communities of Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town. It is known for violence, gangs, and reggae musicians who have emerged from the area. Violent clashes with police have taken place he ...

. D loves a local schoolgirl named Yvonne but their relationship is hindered by an ongoing gang war between the Tappas, led by Skeeter, and the Spicers, led by King Fox. Tired of the violence and destruction in the streets, Jerry Dread organises a DJ session between the two gangs' territories, hoping to broker peace. As peace is about to be achieved, Jerry Dread is shot and killed by Clancy Hibbert, a classmate of D who he witnesses. In 1983, D had become a hardened enforcer for Fox, who works as both a

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

and

drug lord A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin or narcotrafficker is a high-ranking crime boss who controls a sizable network of people involved in the illegal drug trade. Such figures are often difficult to bring to justice, as they are normally not directly ...

. After bungling one of Fox's drug deals due to his volatile behaviour, D is sent by Fox to

Hackney, London Hackney is a district in East London, England, forming around two-thirds of the area of the modern London Borough of Hackney, to which it gives its name. It is 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Charing Cross and includes part of the Queen E ...

where he must deliver a package of

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...

White Jamaican White Jamaicans also known as European-Jamaicans are Jamaican people whose ancestry lies within the continent of Europe, most notably Great Britain and Ireland. There are also communities of people who are descendants of people who arrived from ...

gangster Rico Grimes. D arrives in London but hesitates to make the delivery after hearing Rico flippantly insult his late brother. He flees from Rico's nightclub, taking the cocaine with him before reuniting with Yvonne. Yvonne had long fled to London with her and D's daughter Vanessa to escape the violence in Kingston; she does not welcome D's presence, but agrees to let him stay. While staying, D suspects Clancy, his brother's killer, is in London. One day, a group of youths burglarize Yvonne's flat while D is there, hoping to steal the cocaine he had stolen. After warning them off, D is directed by the youths to a potential buyer of the cocaine in the form of a Turkish crime lord. Using the money he has earned from the sale, D tries to provide Yvonne and Vanessa with the good life. He also uses the money to help the youths fix their sound system and eventually joins them for gigs. Not long after, D is recognised and ambushed by Rico's men and Yvonne kicks him out after her daughter has been fake-kidnapped. D goes to Rico's nightclub to return the money and is only spared because of Fox's influence. Directionless, D falls back to his last remaining objective: finding Clancy in hopes of avenging his brother. After being pointed in the right direction by Sticks, one of the DJs, D confronts Clancy at his home. He is then ambushed by Rico's lieutenants, resulting in Clancy's escape and Sticks' death. Yvonne seeks out Clancy and learns that Fox has something to do with Jerry's death. That night, as D takes up Sticks' place in the DJ group for a concert at Rico's nightclub, Yvonne tells him what Clancy told her and begs him not to go, but is rebuffed. At the same time, Fox arrives in London to meet with Rico and pacify the situation. During the DJ session, Rico insults Fox and threatens to kill D himself, leading the latter to strangle him to death. Fox later meets D in a hallway where he reassures D about what Clancy told him. Clancy then ambushes them both, claiming that Fox had hired him that fateful night, forcing D to kill him in self defense. An injured Fox inadvertently reveals his role in Jerry's death, causing D to question him. Fox reveals the truth: Jerry wasn't supposed to die that night, Skeeter was the target but Clancy missed and hit Jerry. Angered by the revelation, D kills Fox. The ghost of Jerry, having followed D's guilty conscience, fades away. In a flash forward leading to Fox's execution, D and Yvonne are shown happily together with their two children.

Cast

as Dennis "D" Campbell * Shantol Jackson as Yvonne * Sheldon Shepherd as King Fox *

as Rico Grimes * Fraser James as Piper * Everaldo Creary as Jerry Dread Campbell *

Akin Gazi Akin Gazi (born 15 October 1981) is a British actor. Life and career Gazi was born in North London, in 1981, to Turkish Cypriot parents. He attended Queen Mary, University of London studying English and Drama graduating in 2003. He is married ...

as Arif *

Mark Rhino Smith Mark Smith (born 30 September 1969) is a British actor and body builder who starred as Rhino on the popular ITV show, '' Gladiators''. He now lives in Los Angeles. Early life Smith was born in Acton, London on 30 September 1969 to Jamaican pa ...

as Raggz *

Naomi Ackie Naomi Ackie (born 22 August 1991) is an English actress. She made her television debut as Jen in the ''Doctor Who'' episode " Face the Raven" (2015). For her role as Bonnie on the television dark comedy-drama series ''The End of the F***ing World ...

as Mona *

Calvin Demba Calvin Demba is an English actor, writer and director. He is best known for his roles in ''Youngers'' and ''Life''. Early life Demba was born and raised in East London. From the age of 17, Demba attended The Half Moon youth theatre in Limehous ...

as Sticks

Production

Several scenes, including high-paced car chases set in London, were filmed at the

Chatham Historic Dockyard The Historic Dockyard Chatham is a maritime museum on part of the site of the former royal/naval dockyard at Chatham in Kent, South East England. Chatham Dockyard covered 400 acres (1.6 km²) and was one of the Royal Navy's main faciliti ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, doubling up for East London in the 1970s. The Dockyard also features as the wider area where Rico's (

) club is located and D. (

) is chased through the streets and over the roofs at night by Rico's men.

Reception

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 , based on reviews with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads "''Yardie'' proves debuting director Idris Elba has a distinctive eye that benefits from a strong personal connection to his material, even if the end results are somewhat uneven."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

gives the film a weighted average score of 52 out of 100, based on 18 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links