Urchin is the feature directorial debut of celebrated actor Harris Dickinson (Beachrats, Triangle of Sadness, Babygirl). He also wrote the sharp screenplay.
The film boasts a dynamic, star-making turn by Frank Dillane, who won the Un Certain regard for Best Actor at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and should be in this year’s awards conversation.
The Brit thesp plays Mike, a London street hustler who finds himself entangled with the police when he assaults a good Samaritan and steals from him. Mike must now do his best to stay off the street and away from drugs even when the system, society and his own desire to self-destruct are all working against his reintegration and recovery.
Dickinson has crafted a magnetic work, based on his experiences growing up around people with addiction and inescapable circumstances, where the central character is presented, warts and all. Mike has charm and charisma to spare so we instantly take to him and spend the running time super anxiety-ridden as to when the next self-sabotaging shoe is going to drop.
Dillane, son of acclaimed actor Stephen Dllane, began his career at a very young age appearing as Tim Riddle in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009). He attended RADA and appeared onstage in Candida at Theatre Royal. After graduating, he landed the role of Coffin in Ron Howard’s In the Heart of the Sea (2015).
On TV he played Nick Clark in the horror series Fear of the Walking Dead from 2015 to 2018. Other TV credits include Sense8, The Girlfriend Experience, The Essex Serpent, Renegade Nell and Joan.
Onscreen he’s appeared in How to Build a Girl and Harvest and will soon be seen as John Willoughby in a new version of Sense and Sensibility.
Urchin is in theaters, via 1-2 Special, on October 10, 2025.
The Contending had the pleasure of a video chat with Dillane.
