Obey

Adjusting to life outside the foster care system proves challenging for 19-year-old East Londoner Leon, whose aimless friends are a toxic influence, while his tippler mum seems to need mothering even more than he does. Unable to find steady work, his sole comfort is time spent at the boxing gym. When he meets the free-spirited and high-minded Twiggy (Sophie Kennedy Clark, Nymphomaniac), Leon sees a viable escape from his dead-end existence. But as tensions mount after an unarmed Black man is murdered by police, the streets descend into a war zone, and Leon must choose where his allegiances lie. In his first feature film, writer-director Jamie Jones balances a powerful coming-of-age story with a fiery recreation of the class and racial divide that led to the 2011 London riots. As Leon, newcomer Marcus Rutherford is a knockout, mixing imposing intensity with raw-nerve vulnerability in this unforgettable film.