Murdered for Being Different

I first heard about the murder of Sophie Lancaster on the news - and remembered being horrified by the very notion that someone could be brutally murdered simply for the way they dressed.

The present time of the film, after the attack, is layered with minuscule to longer flashbacks of both Sophie and Rob's life together and the night of the attack. Sophie was well into Harry Potter and Rob was good at painting, using Sophie's back to portray wings.

The use of the songs throughout the film were brilliantly segued into the score - and the last one heard was a cover of Running up that Hill, by Kate Bush.

"If only I could make a deal God, then I'd get him to swap our places."

It's a really heartbreaking, well acted, tragic story of a beautiful life being so cruelly and senselessly cut short.

Murdered for being Different is a true life drama about the killing of young Sophie Lancaster (Abigail Lawrie) who was just 20 years old.

Sophie and her boyfriend Robert Maltby (Nico Mirallegro) were attacked in 2007 in their home town of Bacup in Lancashire by a gang of young thugs. Their crime was that they dressed up as Goths and this alternative lifestyle provoked them.

Sophie was kicked to death as she tried to defend Robert who himself suffered serious injuries.

As Robert's mother tries to comprehend what has happened to her son and tell him that Sophie is not going to recover from her injuries the police investigate and try to coax Michael Gorman a witness to the attack to tell them who the culprits were.

The attack is incomprehensible, we are used to seeing people being randomly picked on for being coloured or gay but these are people who just liked wearing dark clothing and make up. It is not even Goths are new, I knew several when I was a teenager and that was 3 decades ago. The only radio station you get to hear The Cure these days is a golden oldies one.

It is a harrowing drama but despite that it really had little that was new to offer. It was well acted but it did trod a predictable path. The police wants the witness to talk as they put the pieces together, the cowardly thugs threaten him with reprisals.

Well directed, well acted, dramatic and inspiring movie! It was surprisingly good to me.

Murdered for Being Different was a docudrama about the death of Sophie Lancaster, a young woman who was beaten to death just for being a goth. The docudrama focused on both the relationship between Sophie (Abigail Lawrie) and her boyfriend, Rob (Nico Mirallegro) and the guilt the one witness, Michael (Reiss Jarvis) suffered.

Murdered for Being Different was directed by Paul Andrew Williams, the director of the excellent indie film London to Brighton and gave the Murdered for Being Different an almost documentary look due to the use of handheld cameras. It was well-acted as a project like this needed to be and the storyline about Michael and the criminal investigation was the one that held my interest the most since he had to choose between his friends and doing the right thing.

I started watching this expecting to get bored but within the first few minutes - I was gripped . excellent script excellent depiction of a real life event. An excellent but very sad film film