London schafft alle (1991)

London schafft alle: Directed by Hanif Kureishi. With Justin Chadwick, Fiona Shaw, Brad Dourif, Naveen Andrews. For want of a nail a shoe was lost, for want of a shoe… a young man’s life is almost lost, which is exactly what this film is all about: a man barely twenty who wants desperately to pull out of London’s drug world by taking a job as a waiter in a ‘normal’ restaurant. But to do this he must come up with a “sensible pair of shoes,” an item that his homeless meanderings hasn’t provided him. In fact, the shoes become a symbol of his striving to break away from those, like himself, who are caught up in the tragedy of drugs and lasciviousness which is so aptly described… sometimes graphically, always realistically… in this film.

“Iu0026#39;ve only seen this movie once, but I was impressed how important a pair of shoes can become. This film lets us view life from a totally different, strange view. A view of life, as a drug addict sees it, but somehow is not really unpleasant. The film has got the same quality as films like u0026quot;Trainspottingu0026quot; or books as u0026quot;Camden Girlsu0026quot;: we are able to laugh about things actually being really tragic. What a pity that this film is known to so few people…”