Hyena

Police corruption, trafficking and Albanian gangsters are some of the topics covers by Gerard Johnson's second gritty feature Hyena. After the low-key success of his Dalston set debut Tony, Johnson has eschewed serial killers to go straight to the grim source of organised crime through the prism of bent coppers in the capital. Peter Ferdinando plays the anti-hero addict policemen Michael Logan, who is as crooked as he is morally complex, his brutish charm only softened when his spectacles appear.

As the head of an undercover group of Met thugs, including the always excellent Neil Maskell and other familiar brit flick scene-stealers, he nicks drugs, visits strip clubs all the while trying to set up a massive drug trafficking deal with his underworld pals. When one of his contacts is hacked to death with a machete in front of him everything begins to unravel for this dodgy bobby with a heart.

Enter Stephen Graham, one of England’s finest actors, who brings sly menace to his role as head of a new anti-trafficking squad looking to quash the ruthless Albanians. With Michael already having a foot in the door with the gang, he offers Graham a way in with disastrous consequences. We are then thrown into a cat and mouse game featuring a young Albanian woman who has been forced into prostitution but has crucial information about the gangster’s plans.

Logan is also the subject of an investigation by the Police Complaints department with an officer, played with weasel like intensity by Richard Dormer, attempting to sabotage his every move. The high tempo keeps rising as we see Logan desperately try and pull all the disintegrating strands together under the twilight of London’s seedy streets.

The odd stillness of the city after hours is perfectly encapsulated and satisfyingly aided by a numbing electronic score by The The. Hyena is brutally real and explicitly so in places but this only serves the seamy story told with economy and poignancy. Never has the underbelly of London’s minority community looked so authentic and the use of topical subjects such a human trafficking are deftly handled.

The ending will divide many viewers considering all that went before it but with hindsight it is the least satisfying yet most probable denouement. Some critics have labelled the script weak and clichéd but this fails to realise just how close to the truth this film is. By showing the police acting just like, or worse than the criminals is eye opening and illustrates how fine the line between illegality and legitimacy really is. The aptly titled Hyena is real find that should do well but its bleak outlook may find it languishing in the late night listings on Film 4. Let’s hope it has the last laugh.