Starred Up (2013)

Drama

Director: David Mackenzie
Writer: Jonathan Asser
Starring: Jack O'Connell, Gilly Gilchrist, Frederick Schmidt, Edna Caskey

"We're all different on the inside"

Starred Up is a terrific British prison drama directed by award-winning Scottish director David Mackenzie (Perfect Sense) and written by newcomer Jonathan Asser. The movie is based on Asser's personal experiences working as a therapist at Wandsworth Prison, with some of the country’s most violent criminals. The title is a term used to describe a measure rarely applied in Britain, the transfer of an uncontrollable juvenile criminal to an adult, high-security prison.

The originality of Starred Up compared to many other films set in the world of prison is that you have a father-son relation in it.

The movie tells the story of Eric Love (Jack O'Connell), a 19-year-old inmate in the U.K. who is prematurely transferred from an institution for young offenders to a prison for adults. While struggling to assert itself against the prison officers and other inmates, Eric also has to confront his father Nev (Ben Mendelsohn), a man who has spent most of his life in prison.

Plot summary from IMDb: Eric Love (O'Connell) is a 19 year old teenager who is so violent he has been 'Starred Up' (Moved to Adult prison) where he finds his father Neville (Mendelsohn) who Eric hasn't seen since he was 5 (since he was put into care). Neville tries to get Eric to settle down, so Eric gets a chance to go through therapy with Oliver (Friend).

Awards: 16 wins & 16 nominations.
Runtime: 106 min
Not R