County Lines

Obeying the first rule - 'write what you know' - former youth worker turned filmmaker Henry Blake turns in an original, stylish debut feature which premiered at the 2019 BFI London Film Festival. It exposes the urban-to-rural drugs system of the title, a network which exploits children to use as couriers. Children like Tyler (Conrad Khan), adrift and so a perfect target for Simon (Harris Dickinson) to charm, befriend and recruit. Tyler's rapid apprenticeship propels the story, which is persuasively brutal and corrosive. But Blake makes it authentic and sensitive too, and his film has huge heart and unexpected optimism beneath.