Idris Elba’s latest role is a fascinating one – he's been Stringer Bell, DCI John Luther, Heimdall and more, and now with Yardie he's a director. Elba's feature debut behind the camera, based on Victor Headley’s novel, is a gangster drama set across 1970s Kingston, Jamaica and 1980s East London, drawing on reggae music, the criminal underground, and themes of identity. We've got an exclusive clip from the film, showing lead character Dennis (aka ‘D’, played by Aml Ameen) getting caught out in a dangerous situation in Hackney.
Elba’s film follows D as a child in Jamaica, where he witnesses his older brother's murder and grows up under the mentorship of Kingston Don King Fox. When he later heads to London as a young adult, D comes face to face with enemies from his past, and sets off on a violent quest for vengeance.
Yardie arrives in UK cinemas on 31 August – and you can read a career-spanning interview with Idris Elba in the current issue of Empire, on sale now (and available online here{
Keep up to date with all the latest movie news, click here to subscribe to Empire on Great Magazines and have the latest issue delivered to your door every month.