Hyena
Director: Gerard Johnson
Starring: Peter Ferdinando, Stephen Graham, Neil Maskell
112 mins; Class 18;
Eden Cinemas Release
Hyena is the story of a gang of corrupt police officers led by the charismatic Detective Inspector Michael Logan (Peter Ferdinando).
Together with his special task force, he targets London’s major drug trafficking business… while taking a fair cut of the business for themselves.
When Spartka, their Turkish connection to the drug underworld is brutally killed by two ruthless Albanian brothers heading up their own business, Logan tries to get in cahoots with them too.
Yet, when a former colleague and nemesis of his David Knight (Stephen Graham) is brought back to the force to investigate the Albanians, Michael finds himself painted into a corner as his own shady deals threaten to come to light.
This is a stark crime drama set in London which treads familiar ground. Yet, writer-director Gerard Johnson is to be credited for adding some panache to the formula.
The film boasts many scenes of ugly, unadulterated violence, such as the opening scene where Logan and his gang of thuggish policemen violently raid a nightclub, only to enjoy the fruits of the raid personally.
Then there’s Spartka’s swift and sudden murder and the inevitable showdown with the Albanians. The film never seems to celebrate the violence, but presents it as an ugly reality faced by the people caught in this seedy underworld; a reality that frankly they well deserve, given their objectionable crooked behaviour.
Johnson pulls no punches in depicting the men as they really are
Johnson pulls no punches in depicting the men on both sides of the admittedly blurry legal divide as they really are and refuses to instil any positive aspect on them.
It is, therefore, almost impossible to muster any sympathy for any of the characters. On the contrary, the viewer is keen to see them get their just desserts.
Johnson also deserves kudos for avoiding the pitfalls of the flawed anti-hero template that so often forms the basis of characters similar to Logan.
Instead, what we have is a man seemingly unrepentant about his actions. His horror at the brutal murder of Spartka soon gives way to musings about how he can make the most of the situation, before a chance encounter with one of the Albanian brothers’ sex trafficking victims Ariana (Elisa Lasowski) allows a tiny bit of humanity to peek through his rotten core and possibly open his eyes to the sordidness of the world around him.
It is a great performance by Peter Ferdinando, whose effortless swagger ever-so-slightly diminishing as the screws get tightened around him.
Ferdinando is matched by Stephen Graham, in an understated yet determined performance as DI Knight, and the scenes between the two prove the most powerful of the film.
The film falls into slight stereotypes with the portrayal of the Albanian brothers (Orli Shuka and Gjevat Kelmendi), what with their track suits and bling, yet they are nevertheless a threatening presence.
The taut plot unravels somewhat towards the end and the open-ended denouement doesn’t quite convince. Yet, overall is an eminently watchable piece of crime drama from a team of relatively unknown faces that bring a fresh perspective to the genre.