Set in the decadent early nineteen noughties, n e f a r i o u s [formerly called “WICKED”] is a character-led Guerrilla-Thriller about trust, friendship and the hypocrisy of the drugs laws. Set in Amsterdam, North Shields, Durham and Stroud Green, North London, it is a fast-paced and ultimately satisfying story of two well-meaning drifters , who dream of opening their own coffeeshop on a sleepy canal in Amsterdam.
After twenty years of relative contentment, Michael Elkiar [Danish acting legend, Kim Bodnia] is having marriage problems. Since his eighteen year old son, Marcus, left for university, his beautiful, alcoholic wife, Tonia (beautiful Dutch actress, Alwien Tulner), has been questioning their relationship. Struggling with a mid-life crisis, Elkiar’s feeling of worthlessness are magnified by a burgeoning cocaine habit. When faced with losing everything he cherishes, he reluctantly agrees to retire from ‘the business’. But getting out of the drugs trade is easier said than done, especially when you’re the boss.
Free-wheeling dope-dealing North Londoners, Lez & Billy (endearingly played by newcomers Conor Woodman & Canadian / Sri Lankan hip-hop star, Spek), are the vulnerably loveable rogues whose lives spiral dangerously out of control when they are caught dealing dope in a major cocaine smugglers club.
After being entrusted with a briefcase full of drugs and the explicit instruction to deliver it from Holland to a hotel in North East England within 24 hours, their car has a blow-out and crashes into a dyke a few miles outside of Amsterdam. Lez drags the unconscious Billy out of the wreck before escaping on a train bound for the airport. The briefcase does not survive the accident.
Suffering from concussion in a Dutch hospital, Billy is visited by Detective Inspector Dawson of the Drugs Enforcement Agency. Faced with the prospect of prison or worse, Dawson threatens him with prison for cocaine smuggling if he refuses to become his grass.