County Lines

I was set a challenge by a so called friend to find the bleakest film ever made. Will our friendship survive this torture? Well I've found it .... The bleakest film of all time. County Lines 2019 BBCIPlayer . It probably hits a nerve because those are the kids and families that I've been living within my neighbourhood and I've watched due to lack of funding and government drive with ever decreasing levels of success over the years spiral further down into poverty .

Desperate times calls for desperate measures.

County Lines is the term used for drug runners working in other cities or rural areas away from their own home patch, principally because they have no police record in that area and because they are young kids. Great acting from all the cast, all unknowns apart from one lad who is now in Eastenders. It's a simple but very real story, 9/10 (thinking about it THE ROAD is the bleakest movie if all time)

Besides the educational value this movie, this movie is up to standard. It's tragic story and this could happen to any of the kids in our society.

Having worked with youngsters in care, watching this was like watching a documentary. It could be a child or a few I have supported or read the case file of. What you see here isn't sensational and over the top. Police and social services have a lack of resources and time to deal with supporting young people who are exploited. The odds are ever stacked against youngsters who get into a cycle of exploitation. Would recommend this as a training resource. And an educational resource for youngsters. Drugs are rife and out of control on the uk. I hope this sheds a light on a very real situation in the uk 2024.

A film that will have you truly trembling during some of its sequences. With a strong sense of 'less-is-more' style filmmaking - the film is infused with a haunting and symbolic use of imagery. The use of sound is implicitly effective and the cast is nothing short of extraordinary: particularly the way Conrad Khan portrays his character Tyler's transformation.

Without a hint of exaggeration... this film would be the perfect film to show in schools. County lines is a very real epidemic in the UK. This film really epitomises the extreme and unsettling lifestyle that children are being unfairly groomed into.

I hope they are showing this to the teens in school, to educate them into understanding that this is a very dangerous path to follow and that the dealers treat them as an acceptable loss to their business, as many of the kids are fooled into believing they can be as rich and looking crisp with nice clothes jewellery and watches as the one who grooms them, when all these groomers are doing is putting all the dangers and risks on young recruited kids so they keep themselves under the radar with the law. I hope with the governments new laws and acts passed they tackle this practise full on and give very long sentences to groomers and drug dealers alike who use and abuse these kids. We can only hope as we need alot of funding for the authorities (police, social services, youth associations, councils, schools non lenient judges and especially the government) to eradicate this growing disease of our modern society. Great acting by Conrad Khan and brilliant writing direction by Henry Blake and his team.