Shane Meadows' gritty portrait of teenage urban life in Thatcher's Britain of the early '80s. With schools breaking up for the summer, 12-year-old Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) makes his way home after a fight. Living at home with his mum in a rundown coastal town, his dad killed in the Falklands, Shaun spends a lot of time on his own and dreads the long summer break. Expecting the worst when he runs into a group of skinheads, Shaun's surprised when they turn out to be friendly and adopt him as one of their own. Suddenly the summer feels a whole lot better as Shaun discovers girls, parties, braces and an identity. But the good times are threatened with the appearance of Combo (Stephen Graham), an older, in-your-face racist, just released from prison, who leads the group down a darker, violent road.

Shane Meadows directs this warmhearted portrait of an unlikely friendship between two boys on the inner London housing estate of Somers Town. Both boys are newcomers to the city; Tomo (Thomas Turgoose) is a runaway from Nottingham, while Marek (Piotr Jagiello) is a young Pole who has come to London with his father - an alcoholic labourer working in the massive redevelopment taking place next door in Kings Cross. The two boys share an infatuation with a beautiful French waitress, Maria (Elisa Lasowski), and argue endlessly over who likes her the most. When Tomo finds himself homeless, he secretly moves into Marek's bedroom - but it is only a matter of time before Marek's dad finds out what is going on.