Human Traffic

The film is an ensemble piece in which the five protagonists plan, enjoy and come down from a weekend out in Cardiff; all motivated at least in part by the need for a weekend escape from the banality and misery of their daily lives. Jip is suffering from sexual anxiety brought on by a series of unsuccessful liaisons.[8] Koop, Jip's best friend, is jealous of his girlfriend Nina's happy and care-free nature. Nina is being sexually harassed in a job she had no choice but to take after having failed a college interview. Lulu, Jip's best female friend and "dropping partner", has suffered infidelity in her last 3 relationships. Moff, the newest member of the group having met Jip at a warehouse party after moving from London to Cardiff, is an unemployed slacker who works as a small-time dealer, despite his father being a senior policeman. The five friends become very close, take drugs such as cannabis, ecstasy and cocaine, and "live for the weekend".

The film follows the antics of the five friends as well as various characters they meet along the way. They go to pubs and clubs on Friday, taking along Nina's 17-year-old brother Lee whose waning enthusiasm for his first drugs experience is played out in a debate between Jip and a doctor. Jip gives up his ticket to Lulu, whom he has talked into coming out and is forced to talk his way into the club as the group are a ticket short. The club scene is then examined through a series of cameos including two attempts by older journalists to understand the club scene. The ensemble then joins a house party, where Lulu and Jip finally kiss and attempt unsuccessfully to make love; whereas the established couple, Koop and Nina, fight over Koop's perceptions about her behaviour. Later, as expected by the group, "what goes up must come down" sets in as the effects of their drug use begin to hit home leaving them coping with feelings of anxiety and paranoia. They recover Lee from a group of younger partygoers he has spent the night with and make their way home.

On returning home, some of the group's issues are mended whilst some are thrown into sharper relief. Jip makes love with Lulu, overcoming his sexual problems. Koop and Nina's argument is resolved. Lee has made it through the weekend without any of his concerns being realised. Moff, however, is still caught up in the paranoia caused by his extensive drug use. He argues with his parents again and is seen walking alone around Cardiff feeling depressed. However, Moff joins his friends for an end of the weekend drink and having raged about his obsession with drugs is soon joking about his addiction with his friends. The film finishes with Jip and Lulu kissing in the street.

• John Simm as Jip
• Lorraine Pilkington as Lulu
• Shaun Parkes as Koop
• Danny Dyer as Moff
• Nicola Reynolds as Nina
• Andrew Lincoln as Felix
• Dean Davies as Lee
• Richard Coyle as Andy

• When Jip first picks up Koop in his car, the DJ heard on the radio is Pete Tong, the film's musical adviser,[8] who has a weekly Friday night radio show on BBC Radio 1.[9]
• "Pablo Hassan", manager of the Asylum club, is played by prominent DJ Carl Cox.[1][10]
• Director Kerrigan appears in several scenes as "Ziggy Marlon", the Junglist dancer in Koop's record shop who asks, "Any jungle in, guy?", as an early aficionado of 'TomToms', the precursor to the Asylum club, (the main club venue for the film), and in a later scene driving with Nina's brother on their way to the house party, as well as several other brief appearances throughout the film. A deleted scene from the film also shows his character in a state of drug induced hysteria while he laughs for no apparent reason.[1]
• Stand-up comedian Jo Brand narrates the scene when Moff (Danny Dyer) is on the sofa hallucinating and losing touch with reality. She was previously a psychiatric nurse.[11]
• Howard Marks appears and narrates the scene on "spliff politics".[12] Marks was a famous cannabis smuggler turned "motivational speaker" and author who wrote his autobiography, Mr Nice, about his criminal life.[13]
• Bill Hicks is described as a "visionary" by characters in the film and features in one scene through archive footage.[12]
• Mad Doctor X appears in the background during the Record Shop Scene.

The film generated mixed reviews, garnering 59% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.[15] Film critic Colm Keaveny proclaimed this film to be Danny Dyer's "finest hour", and Irish critic James Murphy called Dyer's performance "truly remarkable". The film garnered 11 international awards and was nominated for a BAFTA.[4] Leonard Maltin gave the film two and a half stars, describing it as "a writer's film if there ever was one".[16]

An important part of this film is the soundtrack; which includes some of the most famous contemporary dance music producers of the time. These include Armand Van Helden, CJ Bolland, Fatboy Slim, Jacknife Lee, Pete Heller, Ferry Corsten, Carl Cox, Dillinja, Felix Da Housecat, Orbital, Aphrodite, Death in Vegas, Primal Scream, Liquid Child, Underworld, Age of Love, Energy 52, Brainbug and Lucid. The incidental music and scratching from the scene 'Puffin' the Herb' was by Mad Doctor X.

The version of the film released in the United States was heavily edited to remove certain British cultural references and terminology that it was presumably felt American audiences would be unable to identify with or understand. These are mostly in the form of re-dubbed dialogue, such as Jip saying that he and Lulu "recently became dropping partners" being changed to "clubbing partners"; Nina's speech to the journalists in which she says she is looking forward to getting into some "hardcore Richard and Judy" becoming "hardcore Jerry Springer"; and Jip's allusion to Only Fools and Horses with "he who dares, Rodders," being rendered as "he Who Dares Wins".

Other material was simply cut, including Lulu dumping her boyfriend; most of Koop's conversation with his father in the psychiatric hospital; and the 1991 "Summer of Love" flashback sequence. As a result of various cuts, the US version runs to 84m 14s, compared to the original 99m 21s, losing just over 15 minutes of footage, in addition to the numerous re-dubs. Certain scenes also feature different music from the original UK version.

On 21 October 2002, distributors VCI announced the DVD release of Human Traffic Remixed, promising a "modernised" soundtrack with new contemporary (2002) tracks, previously cut scenes, and "state-of-the-art CGI effects." On 18 October The Guardian revealed that rather than being a "director's cut", it was the work of producer Allan Niblo, Kerrigan's tutor and "mentor" at film school. Niblo removed from the titles all shots of the 1994 anti-Criminal Justice and Public Order Act demonstration and subsequent riot, thus eliminating the implicit political element of the original. He also cut the more anti-royalist second verse of the spoof national anthem, and all references to Moff, played by Dyer, being a casual drug dealer. Dyer went on to star in other Niblo produced films, notably The Football Factory. He added previously deleted scenes about Jip's internal struggles over his mother's prostitution, and another where the female leads play aliens, creating a film slightly less concerned with the politics and active promulgation of the Class-A Ecstasy & MDMA drug culture endemic in the 1990s, and more about coming of age struggles informed by a passive participation in it.

Kerrigan only learnt about the project two weeks before the release was due.[17] He explained: "I joke about it. How I signed over the copyright (to Niblo) for a pound and then never even saw the pound. When I finished I was £25,000 in debt. I've never made a penny from the film. Legally I don't have a leg to stand on, but I signed the contract because I was very naive and very broke. Now I'm just broke." No longer able to afford living in London, where he had moved after the film's release, Kerrigan was preparing to return to his native Cardiff. Although shot on a budget of £340,000 and UK box office taking of £2.5 million, Niblo maintained that the film had not made a profit, stating: "the investment is still unrecouped." John Simm was highly critical of the new release, describing it as "cynical exploitation" and complained of Niblo's attempts to get him to appear in a sequel when he had only been paid a nominal fee for the first film. Simm said that he only appeared in Human Traffic because of Kerrigan's involvement.[4] While the original 99m 21s cinema version runs to 95m 21s on video[2] due to PAL speed-up, the Remixed version runs to 95m 30s[18]

• Loved Up (1995 film), a BBC TV drama exploring clubbing and drug culture
• Go, a US film about rave culture released the same year
• Groove, a US film about rave culture released a year later
• Sorted, a UK film about trance culture released a year later
• South West 9, a UK drugs comedy

• Official website
• Human Traffic at IMDb
• Human Traffic at AllMovie