Urchin (2025)
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2025-09 to 2026-08
A homeless man's struggle with addiction and poverty leads him into a surreal journey of violence and spiritual reckoning.
The story
Mike is a homeless young man in London struggling with addiction and poverty. After a series of interactions with a mysterious woman and a man named Simon, Mike finds himself arrested and remanded to prison for stealing a watch. Upon his release, he is placed in a hostel and begins working with a social worker named Nadia to reintegrate into society. He eventually secures a trial shift at a restaurant, where he attempts to navigate the demands of a professional kitchen while dealing with his criminal record and internal instability.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Mike is a homeless man in London struggling with addiction. After stealing a watch from a man named Simon, he is imprisoned. Following his release, he is placed in a hostel and meets social worker Nadia, revealing he is adopted and lacks family support. Mike begins experiencing surreal visions of a violin player and a cavernous space. He secures a trial shift at a restaurant but struggles with the work, eventually being fired for unreliability. He returns to work as a refuse collector, where he bonds with a coworker named Andrea, but experiences horrifying flashbacks of a violent assault on Simon. His life spirals as he becomes intoxicated and confrontational. Finally, Mike returns to his old shelter, where he encounters the violin player again. He follows her into a stone hallway and a chapel, where he finds his friend Nathan in a robe before being thrown through a door into a void, where he finally curls into a fetal position.
- First release year
- 2025
- Runtime (minutes)
- 99
- Production countries
- United Kingdom
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Harris Dickinson
- Writers
- Harris Dickinson · writer; Harris Dickinson · director
- Cast and characters
- Frank Dillane · Mike; Megan Northam · Andrea; Karyna Khymchuk · Ramona; Shonagh Marie · Chanelle; Amr Waked · Franco; Harris Dickinson · Nathan; Ruth Wilson · the voice of Meditation Tape
- Genres
- drama
- Themes
- mental health; systemic failure; homelessness; poverty
- Tone and mood
- surreal; realistic
- Premise and plot tags
- homelessness; poverty; mental health; crime
- Reception
- The film received generally favorable reviews, with critics praising the lead performance and the director's ability to avoid clichés while providing societal commentary.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 77 · scale: 100 · review count: 28
- Production trivia
- The film was produced by Devisio Pictures, a company launched by Harris Dickinson.; The film received British Film Institute (BFI) Filmmaking Fund production support in 2024.; Principal photography began in London in May 2024.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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