Check Out The New Trailer And Poster For STARRED UP

Watch the trailer for Tribeca Film’s STARRED UP. The critically acclaimed film, directed by David Mackenzie and starring Jack O’Connell, Rupert Friend and Ben Mendelsohn, opens in US theaters on August 29th and VOD on August 26th.

The film is a raw look inside prison life that features an authentic dialogue of UK prison slang from screenwriter Jonathan Asser.

Starring Jack O’Connell (star of the upcoming UNBROKEN), Ben Mendelsohn (THE DARK KNIGHT RISES) and Rupert Friend (“Homeland”), STARRED UP focuses on 19-year-old Eric, arrogant and ultra-violent, who is prematurely transferred to the same adult prison facility as his estranged father.

As his explosive temper quickly finds him enemies in both prison authorities and fellow inmates — and his already volatile relationship with his father is pushed past breaking point — Eric is approached by a volunteer psychotherapist, who runs an anger management group for prisoners.

Torn between gang politics, prison corruption, and a glimmer of something better, Eric finds himself in a fight for his own life, unsure if his own father is there to protect him or join in punishing him.

Written by prison system therapist Jonathan Asser, STARRED UP is a merciless, uncompromising portrayal of a dehumanizing life behind bars, and the most accomplished film of David Mackenzie’s career; as father and son, Mendelsohn and O’Connell give extraordinary performances, charting a path that resembles Greek tragedy.

“Unflinchingly brutal, incredibly well acted. David Mackenzie, the underrated director of such moody character studies as Young Adam and Hallam Foe, is a master of atmosphere and finding telling bits of human detail.”
– Bilge Ebiri, Vulture

With STARRED UP, David Mackenzie, the award-winning director of Hallam Foe, Young Adam and Perfect Sense, takes a step into new territory. Known in the industry as a highly intuitive director who always has a strong, driving vision for a film, Mackenzie found himself working in new ways: “It’s the first time I’ve shot a film in story order. I found it very invigorating and it seemed to add to the sense of purity in the process that I hope gets a bit closer to the truth of the story.”

“Two prison films that lodged themselves with me as references were films I watched when I was quite young. Bresson’s A Man Escaped – where the detail and clarity/simplicity felt really strong and amazingly tense and engaging. I watched it again about three days before we filmed and was still blown away by it and ‘carried it into battle’ with me for the shoot.

The other one was Don Siegel’s Escape From Alcatraz, which I saw as a teenager and haven’t really seen since, but I also remember a sparseness, an unsentimentally and a kind of purity of realism. I think both films use the repeated rhythms of the daily cycle to good effect and I think this had a reflection in what I was trying to do with this film.”

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A preview of the slang in the glossary below.