Urban Hymn is a 2015 British coming-of-age drama directed by Michael Caton-Jones, written by Nick Moorcroft, and starring Letitia Wright, Shirley Henderson, Isabella Laughland, Ian Hart, and starring Steven Mackintosh.
Premise
Set against the backdrop of the 2011 England riots, the film follows a neglected and volatile female offender, Jamie, who possesses an amazing singing voice and is torn between her loyalties toward her inspiring, unconventional care worker, Kate, and her possessive and volatile best friend, Leanne.
Cast
Letitia Wright as Jamie Harrison
Shirley Henderson as Kate Linton
Isabella Laughland as Leanne Dixon
Steven Mackintosh as David Linton
Ian Hart as Ian Wilson
Billy Bragg as himself
Shaun Parkes as Charlie
Caroline O'Neill as Fiona
Frankie Oatway as Bob
Matthew Steer as Michael
Jack McMullen as Dean
David McKell as Ryan
Victoria Alcock as Prison Chaplain
Production
On 7 July 2014, Dashishah Global Film Production and Eclipse Films in association with Powderkeg Pictures announced that Caton-Jones would direct the film with Shirley Henderson starring opposite 2012 Screen International Star of Tomorrow, Letitia Wright. Principal photography commenced on 22 September 2014 with filming taking place in Richmond, Twickenham, Morden and former HMP prison Latchmere House in South-East London. Dashishah fully financed the production through their film production company which is based in Geneva, Switzerland. The film wrapped shooting on 23 October 2014 after a rigorous 28-day schedule, filming upwards of 13 scenes a day. The semi-autobiographical film was based upon Nick Moorcroft's formative years growing up in Essex. Billy Bragg's initiative, Jail Guitar Doors, which donates guitars to prison inmates also features in the film.
Release
The film was selected for the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival in September 2016, and received its world premiere in the 'City To City' section. Urban Hymn was also officially selected for the Busan International Film Festival, Asia's largest film festival held in South Korea in October 2015. On 19 February 2016 the Glasgow Film Festival held a gala screening for the film where it was hailed as a powerful social realist drama and resulted in many favourable reviews. The film was selected for the 46th edition of the Giffoni film festival held in Italy and screened in the Generator +18 section on 21 July 2016. On 25 July the festival jury awarded Urban Hymn the Gryphon Award for Best Film.
It was reported by Screen International at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival that Urban Hymn had been picked up for theatrical distribution in the U.K and Ireland in selected cinemas nationwide. The film was released in cinemas in U.K and Ireland on Friday 30 September 2016. Urban Hymn opened in select cinemas throughout the UK on 30 September 2016, to largely strong reviews. It currently holds a 60% Fresh rating on review site Rotten Tomatoes, based on 25 reviews. The film opened in select cinemas in America on 12 May 2017. It was New York Times critics pick of the week. The film has currently sold to 10 territories across the world, including Canada, Spain, Italy, Japan, Scandinavia, Turkey, South-Korea, Japan and North America.
The film was added to Netflix on 3 July 2017. It was announced in Variety that the film would also be available On Demand platforms including AT&T U-verse, Comcast, DirecTV, Spectrum, Amazon Instant, iTunes, Dish Network, Vubiquity and Vudu.