Nathaniel Martello-White is a British actor who went with all his arsenal to the other side of the camera, making his debut as a screenwriter and director of a feature film with ‘The Strays‘. An author’s film we could say, a social thriller that is not without problems, but which propels the young filmmaker among the most interesting debutants of the beginning of this cinematic year.
In the opening scene of the film, we see the protagonist, a young black woman named Cheryl, abandoning a life full of problems, caused by poverty and by a possibly violent partner. Some twenty years later we find the heroine, now named Neve, settled in a prosperous suburb, married to a white insurance agent, teaching religion at the local high school and doing charity work specific to wealthy people. The neighborhood is almost exclusively populated by whites, and the appearance of two young people, a black boy and a black girl, who seem to seek their fortune in this affluent area unsettles the residents, not least Neve. The prejudices of the last arrivals barely assimilated in a society where the differences of race are only hidden and not erased are manifested here as well. It is a known phenomenon, newcomers questioning the identity of the recently accepted. In this case, however, it is about more than prejudices. We don’t know the details of Cheryl / Neve’s social rise, but it seems to have been marked by an abandonment with collateral casualties. Newcomers prove to be related to this story. The ending recalls the films of Kubrick (‘A Clockwork Orange’) and Haneke (‘Funny Games’).
Nathaniel Martello-White is therefore not entirely original neither in the writing of the script nor in the directorial ideas. ‘The Strays‘ is well-crafted and beautifully shot, even too beautifully, Netflix-style. The actors are well chosen and play their roles professionally. Something is missing though. The themes addressed are very hard (social inequality with barriers that can only be crossed through fraud or violence, racial prejudice under the guise of social conventions, family abandonment), but the story, even if it is not without a surprise at the end, is kept too much in the acceptable limits for films intended for streaming. The illustrious precedents that inspired the screenwriter-director excelled precisely through their audacity to the point of lack of management towards the audience’s sensitivities. I am not advocating these methods, perhaps the approaches may be different today, but what I lacked in this film is precisely the audacity to shock. Nathaniel Martello-White has proven his talent, but now he must muster the courage to shock his spectators.