★★★★

A background in rap and grime music videos, made on the cheap in a late noughties Islington, informs Charlotte Regan’s impressive directorial debut. It’s experience that floods a tale of social hyper realism with emotional intelligence and a street smart awareness that stories can find their true awakening through visual expression. Words alone are only one part of the equation. Certainly, there’s extraordinary lyrical beauty behind Scrapper, which is itself defiantly atypical. Having nailed over two hundred shorts across her teens – before graduating to bigger collaborations with Mumford & Sons, Wretch 32 and Stereophonics – Regan is no newcomer. That doesn’t stop her first feature from feeling outrageously assured.