This town (VOSE)

In the early 80s, four young people decide to form a band to escape the lack of prospects in their marginalised neighbourhoods in Birmingham and Coventry. Their daily lives are set against a backdrop of violence, chaos and social protest, but also a time of counter-cultural revolution and the explosion of 2-tone music, an evolution of the well-known ska that was born in Coventry.

“This Town is also the story of a dysfunctional family that has to overcome many obstacles to stay together. Dante is a young dreamer with a Jamaican father and an English mother, who wants to be a poet and is in love with a classmate who does not love him back. His cousin Bardon is trying to escape the influence of his father, who wants him to join the IRA, while trying to help his alcoholic mother Stella. Dante’s older brother Gregory, after a past under the command of the neighbourhood gangster Mr Carmen, is now in the British army fighting the troubles in Northern Ireland.

Each has his own challenges and demons to face: Dante, a peaceful and idealistic young man, is lured into a world of violence by Mr Carmen; Bardon cannot always keep his distance from his father and his ideology; and Gregory, blackmailed by British intelligence, will spy on his relatives close to the IRA. Each will have to find his own way in an environment of violence, corruption and disillusionment. An ode to youth, dreams and music as a means of connection and redemption.