Are drug dealers just working the daily grind?
- Text by Alex King
As any fast food chain worker, bar tender or waitress will tell you: working in the service industry sucks.
Long, unsociable hours and having to wait on morons all day slowly saps away at the even the brightest soul.
But have you ever spared a thought for drug dealers? They’re slugging out the same daily grind, dealing with the same predictable faces and driving around town with little baggies to make your average weekend plans seem just a little more exciting.
Luke Carlisle, director of He Works The Long Nights, explains he wanted to take another look at drug dealing, by “stripping out the glamourised elements and seeing what else was in there. This morphed into a script about boredom and repetition, and how it affects the main character who works in, what is essentially, the service industry.”
Luke’s atmospheric and beautifully shot debut stars David Ajala from Starred Up, who as the main character reveals that just like any other job, in reality, drug dealing is all too mundane: “I’m in the system too you know.”
Check out Luke’s work.
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