Indie cinema – as opposed to the heavyweight studios – can often produce highly distinctive and unusual work, particularly in the more quirky corners of the crime film idiom. That’s very much the case with the unsparing crime drama Derelict, which numbers among its bushel of writers two leading lights of the current Blu-ray industry: Kat Ellinger and Michael MacKenzie. Although the film is very specifically English, with its caustic, unromanticised picture of urban decay, there is something Gallic in its sensibility – no doubt because the film’s director, Jonathan Zaurin, was born in the small town of Audincourt in France and based some of the plot on actual events that took place in the town. And the minatory, dangerous milieu of the film – despite its British setting – has echoes of the work of Albert Camus, notably the murder in The Outsider.
The narrative centres on the bitter, traumatised Abigail (Suzanne Fulton), a young woman attempting to deal with the after-effects of the savage killing of her father. A separate strand of the film deals with one of the killers, who with his brother leads a life of petty criminality that finally descends into another brutal murder. With its uncompromising scenario, this is a film a million miles away from the current wave of ‘cosy crime’, and it is aided by its striking cinematography (the film was shot by the director himself) – many shots are given a distinctly painterly quality, despite the unprepossessing locales with which the viewer is presented. Other considerable pluses are the aforementioned writing – always idiomatic and truthful – and the strong performances. There is also the artfully managed soundtrack, which is always at the service of Jonathan Zaurin’s imagery. If there is one caveat, it is perhaps that the director occasionally makes some narrative points at greater length than they warrant, but that’s not a serious reservation. Derelict is a strong and compelling addition to the library of British crime film.
