Yorkshire-based drama charting the unlikely friendship that develops over the course of a summer between working-class Mona and well-to-do Tamsin.
Mona has just got hold of a brilliant moped that only cost a tenner. No engine but still dirt-cheap. She lives with her brother, Phil, who used to run a pub before he found God and poured away all the booze. Tamsin is rich, spoilt and trying to live a life of seductive decadence.
Mona and Tamsin meet on the moors, above their quiet Yorkshire village and begin an intense, unlikely friendship. While Tamsin is tragic and fantastical, Mona is rough and witty. Tamsin is quickly charmed and Mona is hooked. Both want to escape their lives but Phil wants to save them, and everybody else.
Filmed on location in Todmorden, this BAFTA-winning drama has been dubbed “a triumph of mood and implication” by the New York Times and a “startling rite-of-passage drama” by BBC.com.
Director:Paweł Pawlikowski
Cast: Emily Blunt, Paddy Considine, Natalie Press
Language: English
Northern Youth—Northern Youth is a celebration of northern young identity in cinema. Bradford is one of the UK's youngest cities with a significant portion of its population under 25, and this season champions the bold and blistering spirit of youthful northern characters, actors, film-makers, writers, and mavericks. Punky and poetic, powerful and punchy, this season celebrates northern youth in all its glory.
The season is curated for Bradford 2025 by Dominic Leclerc, the Bradford-born, raised and based director of Sex Education, Skins and Shameless, and the upcoming Bradford-set feature Flesh and Flamingos about queer northern youth. His passion for complex and daring stories about youth drive this rebellious and raw season.
The selections in Northern Youth span several decades, from a '60s British New Wave classic celebrating teenage rebellion, to a provocative contemporary film debut about consent. The stories transport us from the back streets of Salford, to the majestic Yorkshire moors; from the Liverpool of a teenage boy's lyrical imagination, to the underbelly of Nottingham's council estates. The stories are unique and bursting with youthful spirit: from a group of '80s skinheads exploring their collective and individual identity, to a teenage girl in Yorkshire pushing at the realms of her sexuality, from a young northern rebel boldly defying authority, to a group of adolescents navigating their bodies and emotions on their first clubbing holiday. Together, these films celebrate northern youth in all its complexity—championing diversity, the individual experience, and both the frailty and wonder of being on the cusp of adulthood.
This season is part of Bradford: A City of Film, a programme of independent film across the Bradford District. Co-Produced by Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture and National Science and Media Museum with the support of the BFI, awarding funds from the National Lottery.
