After a major last year with The Night Of, Rogue One, and Jason Bourne this year, Riz Ahmed also brought a few films to TIFF. One of them was City of Tiny Lights, which comes from Dredd‘s Pete Travis, and follows Ahmed as a London detective who gets entangled in a missing-girl case as a complex web of lies bubble up. With the film picked up for U.K. distribution this April, the first neon-soaked trailer has now arrived.
We said in our review, “Ahmed shines in the lead role: something this charismatic actor has deserved since the wonderfully funny Four Lions. He embodies the hard-edged street-wise detective well without erasing the sense of empathy his characters always possess. We see the struggle endured between those worlds and know how Shelley’s leaving widened the void in his soul that Stuart’s death tore open. People like him from Mrs. Elbaz to Avid to Donnely (a rarity in films like this where the “real” police often show animosity towards their competition unless his name is Sherlock Holmes) and he has a good head on his shoulders to do right by his city no matter the consequences. He probably bites off more than he can chew this time, but he’s prone to making things personal.”
Check out the trailer below for the film also starring Cush Jumbo, James Floyd, Billie Piper, and Roshan Seth.
Meet Tommy Akhtar (Riz Ahmed), cricket fan, devoted son to an ailing father and deadbeat private eye. He’s got an office above a cab firm, a taste for cigarettes and bourbon, and a finely tuned moral compass that he keeps hidden behind a sharp cynicism. When Tommy walks into his office one morning to find high-class prostitute Melody seeking his help, he’s launched into a story that plays as an utterly original modern noir.
Directed by Pete Travis (Vantage Point, Dredd), Riz Ahmed (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The Night Of) stars alongside Billie Piper (Penny Dreadful, Secret Diary of a Call Girl, Yerma) as Shelley, Tommy’s long-lost love. The ensemble cast includes Cush Jumbo (Josephine and I, The Inbetweeners) and Roshan Seth (Indian Summers, My Beautiful Laundrette). Rebecca O’Brien (I, Daniel Blake) produces.
Set in West London, CITY OF TINY LIGHTS is co-written by author Patrick Neate, and based on his novel of the same name. It is a unique portrait of contemporary London as a teeming multicultural metropolis where nothing is as it seems.
City of Tiny Lights hits U.K. theaters on April 7.