Hyena is a slick, and very violent, British gangster film from writer/director Gerard Johnson. The central character Michael, excellently played by Peter Ferdinando, is a corrupt policeman in London. He is a good cop, though, at least on the surface, making sure he and his three fellow corrupt officers keep their paperwork straight and make more than their quota of arrests.
The story intertwines a few strands that all converge to make it a particularly difficult few days for Michael. A secret deal that he has pumped £100,000 into goes awry, courtesy of a couple of super mean Albanians, who he is forced to investigate as part of a special unit headed by an old enemy (played by the ever dependable Stephen Graham). On top of this, he, and his mates, are being investigated for police corruption by the smug - though, I suppose, good guy - Nick (Richard Dormer), as well as having to keep an eye on an immigrant, Ariana (Elisa Lasowski), in danger of being sold or killed by the Albanians; and he is even having relationship problems with his girlfriend Lisa (MyAnna Buring).
The world created for the film feels very claustrophobic. There isn’t a whole lot original about it, story-wise, and it is certainly flawed as a film, but it all flows nicely - held together by some great actors doing to some great acting, some lovely cinematography, an interesting soundtrack from The The, and genuine unpredictability and tension.
The character of Michael is strangely likeable for a corrupt drug addicted policeman – maybe it is because we see his emotional pain or that he does kind of seem to have his head screwed, compared with most of the people around him at least, and his attempts to do more good than bad seem somehow admirable within the world he has got himself into – of which there are hints towards him regretting. As we get closer to the film’s end, his motives and morals become more frantic and ambiguous. The drugs and sheer weight of the converging situations take him to an inevitable dead end.
The film’s ending will frustrate many. Some will think it was actually completely devoid of an ending, but those people would be missing the point. There would have been nothing gained from playing the rest of the scene out in a conventional way. We get all our answers and conclusions from Michael’s face and the events that led him to that point.
Hyena is showing at Broadway Cinema between Friday 22 May and Sunday 24 May 2015.
Hyena Trailer
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