Synopsis
Sixteen year-old Danny Jacobs is growing-up in a strict Ultra-Orthodox Jewish family in a drab North London ghetto where time goes backwards… slowly. But when he stumbles on the day-glo explosion of the Sex Pistols swearing their way to immortality on teatime TV, a door to another world is opened. Meanwhile Ivan, his domineering, evangelical Dad, has other plans for him: religious college, Israel trip, marries the nice girl from Synagogue…
So, Danny finds ever more inventive escape routes to embark on a thrilling and clandestine journey into Punk, politics and passion - accompanied by a group of similarly misfit teens: a young Jamaican Rasta whose Mum is on a picket-line, the boy next door who embraces the nihilistic side of Punk, a sassy German traveller girl who becomes Danny’s first love and the Jewish Princess his family have mistakenly set their marriage sights on. With a winning combination of talent, adrenaline and chutzpah, Danny and his mates go undercover to create a seminal fanzine and witness landmark Punk events like the Sex Pistols’ infamous Thames River boat party - rubbing shoulders with the great, the good and the notoriously bilious of Punk Rock legend. A subtle ally on Danny’s journey is his German/Jewish Grandpa, a former Anarchist and family black-sheep.
Danny’s voyage of self-discovery takes place across the pivotal year of 1977, where beneath the surface of a patriotic nation celebrating the Queen’s Jubilee, racial tensions simmer, riot police clash with pickets, unemployment soars and recession looms. The labour movement is on its last legs and Thatcher’s Britain is just around the corner. Caught between Punk’s anarchic promise of thrills, spills and ‘no future’, and the comfort and security of family and community - Danny has to make a very difficult choice.