Bill Nighy watches people slap each other stupid. Chiwetel Ejiofor's directorial debut punches way above its weight.
A young boy watches a fight in a crowded bar: a masked man versus the people’s champ. But rather than boxing, this is an adult, brutal version of ‘Slaps’ – slaps that can break a man’s hand. Three years ago, James’ alcoholic father Michael left him and his mother, but promised he’d be back to make them proud – now, James believes the man in the mask is his father, returning as a hero, but things are not what they seem...
Acting
Iain Glen's weathered desperation masks brutal vulnerability.
Direction
Ejiofor's tight framing traps you in the boy's perspective.
Production
The sweat-soaked pub feels dangerously, claustrophobically real.
Director
Chiwetel Ejiofor
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Ejiofor wrote and directed this at 30, before his major leading man breakthrough—his only directing credit for over a decade.
The 'slap fighting' subculture was briefly popular in 2000s Britain as underground entertainment—Ejiofor uses it as metaphor for self-destructive masculine pride.
US
GB
