CASS

Year: 2008
UK: Optimum Releasing
Cast: Nonso Anozie, Natalie Press, Linda Bassett, Leo Gregory, Gavin Brocker, Peter White, Paul Kaye, Bronson Webb, Lorraine Stanley, Ralph Ineson, Robbie Gee, Verelle Roberts
Director: Jon S Baird
Country: UK
UK: 108 mins
UK Certificate: 18 contains frequent very strong language and strong violence
UK Release Date: 1 August 2008 (Limited Release)

Synopsis

CASS, written and directed by Jon S Baird (and executive produced by Optimum's Will Clarke), is the extraordinarily powerful and true story of one man's identity struggle and ultimate redemption. The film follows how a Jamaican orphan baby, adopted by an elderly white couple in 1950's London, changed from being the most feared hooligan in the country by finding respect through violence, to Britain's best selling black author.

Cass Pennant (Nonso Anozie) grew up in a time before political correctness and as a young child, was forced to endure racist bullying on a daily basis. One fateful day the pent up years of anger surfaced in an explosive burst of violence and from then on, Cass decided he would never be bullied again. Through violence, Cass found the respect he had never had, but he'd become addicted to the buzz of fighting and the power it ultimately gave him. As a boyhood fan of West Ham United, Cass rose through the ranks to become the leader of their hooligan gang, The Intercity Firm (The ICF). Being a six feet five black man in a predominantly white social sphere, Cass was an instantly recognisable target for his adversaries and the authorities. Cass was eventually given the first long term prison sentence for football related violence, when the Thatcher regime made it their main priority to rid the country of the 'English disease'.

After enduring years of racial abuse in childhood, Cass was again faced with the same problem, but now from an element of black prisoners who regarded him as a 'Choc-Ice' (black on the outside, white on the inside). On his release, Cass fell in love with Elaine (Nathalie Press) and tried to change his life, but his violent past eventually caught up with him and he was shot three times at point blank range, as a result of a previous feud with an Arsenal gang. Cass was left with the terrible dilemma; to seek vengeance as the street had taught him, or to renounce his violent past...