The best Sam Gittins’s drama movies

On the outskirts of Birmingham and the margins of society the Billingham family perform extreme rituals and break social taboos as they muddle through a life decided by factors beyond their control. At times shocking and laced with an unsettling humor, three episodes unfold as a powerful evocation of the experience of growing up in a Black Country council flat.

Nineteen-year old Leon returns home to take care of his alcoholic mother and adjust to life as an adult after an adolescence spent in and out of foster care. Frustrated by his lack of an education and his bleak financial prospects, Leon finds solace in the boxing ring. He soon meets the rebellious and beautiful Twiggy, who is squatting in abandoned houses to escape her family’s unfeeling affluence. As rumblings of riots begin in the streets and police and protesters engulf his neighborhood, Leon must decide whether to join his friends and fight or seek a new life with Twiggy.

Break is a 'rags to riches', feel good story. The film follows the exploits of Spencer Pryde (Sam Gittins), a gifted, inner-city kid, wasting his talents on petty crime. After witnessing the brutal murder of his pal Denis and finding himself in debt to a drug dealing thug named Ginger, it seems Spencer's life is spiraling out of control, until one day, a chance encounter with a Chinese stranger and former eight-ball pool champion named Vincent Quiang (David Yip) presents him with an opportunity to turn his life around. But in order to make a new life for himself, Spencer will first need to break away from peer pressure of his friends, his environment and all the negative influences of his current life.

Sorority tells the story of two sisters, Harriet (Sophie Kennedy Clark) and Sarah (Emily Haigh). When both women find themselves heading in opposite directions in life, they must first come to terms with their tragic past and reconcile with their estranged mother Val (Kate Dickie), before looking ahead to a brighter future.

Macie (Patty Srisuwan), a Thai immigrant adopted into a North American family, must look after her dementia suffering grandfather (John Rhys-Davies). When she discovers that her birth mother may not have died in a tsunami fifteen years earlier, Macie teams up with grandfather to discover the truth about her past in order to decide which family means the most to her.