A hard watch, but ultimately a rewarding one: County Lines reviewed

County Lines is the kind of social realism that the British do so well, if not too well. In other words, a hard watch. In fact, at times it’s so unbearable you might find yourself pressing pause because you’ve suddenly remembered the fridge needs a clean, say. Or the hall: couldn’t it do with a tidy-up? But this tale of a young boy caught up in transporting drugs has to be tough. And there is sympathy, tenderness and hope, too. As for the kid, who is a sort of modern-day Billy from Kes, you will certainly take him to heart.

The film is written and directed by Henry Blake, a one-time actor who was a youth worker in London for 11 years. So he knows of what he speaks and what he is speaking of here is the horribly real problem of teens and children (some as young as seven) who are recruited to shift drugs from urban areas to more rural ones.