Sket Analysis

Background

Sket (2011 dir. Nirpal Bhogal) reveals the disturbing sub culture of violent girl gangs in London. The film challenges many contemporary films, which merely focus on male teen gangs. It was made in consultation with real life gang members and the intention of the film is to offer an authentic reflection of life in a girl gang. The director argues that the film was created for young people as they feel the life they lead is poor and wanted some form of escapism, which they could relate too. This is what Bhogal aimed to do (Independent, May 2010).

It represents collective identity in many ways -

- Clothing – puffer jackets, hoodies, trainers
- Language – street language used ‘sket’ and ‘shank’
- Their identity is shown through the music – grime genre
- Setting – urban area, graffiti, top deck of buses
- No maternal figures in their life so look to one another for an identity.
- No respect for authority – shown in many scenes such as: beating up ex lover in broad daylight, Shaks says to Kayla ‘why didn’t you go to the police’ to which Kayla replies ‘is there any point?’, no punishment is given to the girls at end of film
- Anti Social behaviour – shown throughout the film when the girls bash into passers by, beat up innocent passers by and also steal from shop.
- They hang around the estate during most of the film and the girls do not appear to be in education or employment.
- At the beginning of the film Kayla gets attacked by male teens and people on top deck of bus do not rush to help – could the reason for this be the fact that they are used to this kind of behaviour or are too scared to challenge the violent behaviour they witness?


Link to previous texts
Quadrophenia/Clockwork Orange – Scene at the start of film was said to be reminiscent of Alex and his Droogs when they beat up tramp. Kayla is searching for an identity and wants to belong to a group after the death of her mother and finding herself in a new city. At the end of the film she meets up with her estranged father and she loses the hoody and appears to wish for a better life – much like Jimmy.
London riots – Links to the idea of broken Britain and failure of penal system (which were cited reasons for the riots in August). It reinforced the message of gangs and anti social behaviour as seen in the London riots. It also showed urban, concrete estates and the fact that young people are excluded from mainstream society.

Link to theory
Identity is not given and is constructed and negotiated. Gauntlett.