"Face"
1997
Directed by Antonia Bird

Actor Robert Carlyle and director Antonia Bird, frequent collaborators, reunited for this riveting feature about a gang of criminals who plan the heist of a lifetime. When the money suddenly disappears, however, the tension rises as the gang tries to find the traitor among them. "Tense, gripping crime thriller, Bird's best film by far, with Robert Carlyle in peak form...an oddly precise snapshot of England on the cusp of New Labour Cool Britannia swagger, suggesting crime as a self-defeating response to political disillusion and post-Thatcher cynicism" (Gavin Smith, Film Comment). 107 minutes.