Urchin

Urchin is a heart-wrenching and raw portrait of Mike, a homeless man who lives alternately on the streets and in hostels, trying to escape the vicious cycle of poverty and addiction. After being caught stealing and serving his prison sentence, Mike is given the opportunity to reintegrate into society with jobs as a refuse collector and cook. 

While constantly struggling with himself and his demons, he balances between a fledgling sense of community and his destructive past. Director Harris Dickinson powerfully and rawly depicts the life of an addicted young man trapped in the grim streets of London. With this compelling character study, which balances classic British social realism and black absurdity, Dickinson also takes a ruthless look at a national crisis of homelessness and the difficult path to recovery. 

Urchin is the impressive directorial debut of actor Harris Dickinson, known for Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022) and Halina Reijn's Babygirl (2024), among others. In addition to directing, he also took on one of the supporting roles in the film. Urchin premiered this spring at the 78th Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section, where it won a FIPRESCI prize and lead actor Frank Dillane was awarded the prize for Best Actor, and was then selected as the closing film of the Film Fest Gent.