Cinema Without Borders: Walking the streets—Urchin

A lot of the viewers would identify Harris Dickinson, the young actor, for the decadent, materialistic world of the rich and famous that he inhabited as model Carl in Rubin Ostlund’s Triangle of Sadness (2022) or as the diabolically cute young intern Samuel, seducing his boss Romy Mathis (Nicole Kidman) in Halina Reijn’s exploration of dangerous liaisons in the corporate setting in Babygirl (2024).

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However, as a director, Dickinson goes into a diametrically opposed terrain of the underprivileged. More in line with Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper, which won the Grand Jury Prize for the World Cinema Dramatic competition in Sundance 2023 and in which Dickinson played an estranged, young, indigent father, Jason, trying hard to strike an equation with his daughter Georgie (Lola Campbell) after her mother’s death. Dickinson's debut feature film Urchin lives up to its name. It's a character study of a hobo Mike (Frank Dillane) who barely manages to get by, living on the streets of East London. A violent incident lands him in the prison but a subsequent restorative justice session and rehab also offer an opportunity to work—as a chef and then as a cleaner—and socialise, get over the fits of anger to bond with colleagues and forge friends