# Neds
**Neds** (also styled **NEDS**, an acronym for Non-Educated Delinquents, the Scottish term for troubled youths) is a 2010 British coming-of-age drama written and directed by [Peter Mullan](https://www.edgepedia.org/peter-mullan), set in early-1970s Glasgow. It follows John McGill, an intelligent working-class Catholic schoolboy who descends from prize-winning pupil to gang member under the pressure of an abusive alcoholic father, a feared older brother, and the city's territorial gang culture.[1](https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/movie-reviews/2011/0120/447951-neds/) • [2](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/neds-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc00mjmxmjg)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Title meaning | NEDS = Non-Educated Delinquents, the Scottish slang term for troubled youths[1](https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/movie-reviews/2011/0120/447951-neds/) |
| Director/writer | Peter Mullan, his third feature as director[2](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/neds-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc00mjmxmjg) • [3](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/neds-18-2190037.html) |
| Setting | Glasgow in the early 1970s[4](https://www.screendaily.com/making-neds/5005249.article) |
| Lead cast | Conor McCarron as John McGill, Gregg Forrest as young John, Joe Szula as brother Benny; Mullan plays the father[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1560970/fullcredits/) • [6](https://www.timeout.com/movies/neds) |
| Production | UK, France, Italy; Blue Light, Fidélité Films, Studio Urania; 124 minutes[7](https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/files/19960318/Neds_AVPP.pdf) |
| Awards | Golden Shell for Best Film and Silver Shell for Best Actor (McCarron), San Sebastián 2010[8](https://sinekatalog.com/en/films/neds.html) |
| UK release and gross | 21 January 2011; £965.3 thousand from about 178,766 tickets[9](https://saltypopcorn.co.uk/movies/neds) |
| Critical score | 94% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (35 reviews)[10](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/neds) |
## Spoilers
### Story and characters
The film opens with eleven-year-old John McGill leaving primary school with prizes as the best student, then follows his descent over several years.[11](https://thinkingfaith.org/articles/film_20101029_2.htm) John is an intellectually gifted, working-class Roman Catholic schoolboy whose road to academic success is blocked by a lack of positive male role models: his father is an emotionally abusive alcoholic and his older brother Benny is a feared member of one of Glasgow's teenage gangs.[7](https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/files/19960318/Neds_AVPP.pdf) His brother's reputation follows him into school, where teachers place him in a lower class because of who Benny is, and his class background later sees him rejected by the family of a middle-class boy.[7](https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/files/19960318/Neds_AVPP.pdf)
Two actors share the role: Gregg Forrest plays John as a child and Conor McCarron, in his screen debut, plays the teenager.[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1560970/fullcredits/) • [12](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Neds) Mullan himself plays the father, a performance Time Out describes as an alcoholic ghost terrorizing the household, and Joe Szula plays Benny.[6](https://www.timeout.com/movies/neds) The Independent framed the film's central question as nature versus nurture: whether John will embrace his legacy of violence or forge an identity independent of his upbringing.[3](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/neds-18-2190037.html)
## Personal but not autobiographical
Mullan grew up in Glasgow and repeatedly described the film as "personal, not autobiographical". In a Tribeca interview he estimated that about 40 percent of it is factually correct and most of it is made up; in a BAFTA Q&A he gave the same split, saying it is "emotionally what I remember".[13](https://tribecafilm.com/news/512c03301c7d76d9a90001e4-peter-mullan-neds) • [14](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/interviews/peter-mullan-ned-non-establishment-director) Elements that did happen include his being top of his primary school and told a bully would "get him" at the big school, and his being placed in the second class because of his brother; in the film these become the bully Canta's threat and the school's treatment of John.[15](https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/neds-peter-mullan) Mullan has also said the film draws on his own brief absorption into a local razor gang, The Young Car-Ds.[16](https://www.alistairharkness.com/features/peter-mullan-interview-neds)
He gave the original intention as an examination of knife crime and gang tribalism, which developed into an exploration of adolescence.[13](https://tribecafilm.com/news/512c03301c7d76d9a90001e4-peter-mullan-neds) Setting the story in the relative past was deliberate: it avoids getting bogged down in contemporary detail, and in his view the only difference between then and now is detail, since the gangs remain territorial organizations.[14](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/interviews/peter-mullan-ned-non-establishment-director)
## Production
Neds was Mullan's first directorial project since [The Magdalene Sisters](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-magdalene-sisters) (2002), filmed in Glasgow seven years after his [Golden Lion](https://www.edgepedia.org/golden-lion)-winning debut.[4](https://www.screendaily.com/making-neds/5005249.article) It was shot on location in Mullan's old secondary school and Catholic parish in Mosspark.[11](https://thinkingfaith.org/articles/film_20101029_2.htm) The crew included cinematographer Roman Osin, composer Craig Armstrong, and editor Colin Monie.[17](https://tribecafilm.com/festival/archive/neds)
To prepare his largely first-time cast, Mullan had his friend Paul Donnelly, who also appears in the film, run a "fight club" for about eight weeks before shooting, teaching dummy fighting in which nobody was allowed to make contact on pain of dismissal.[18](https://tribecafilm-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/release/press_kit/51/NEDS_Press_Notes__6.29.11_.pdf) For the bridge gang fight, shot over two days, he stationed two divers under the bridge and gave the young actors permission to raise an arm and freeze the shoot if anyone fell; no one was hurt.[13](https://tribecafilm.com/news/512c03301c7d76d9a90001e4-peter-mullan-neds) Casting began with a newspaper advertisement that brought about 350 boys to simple auditions, narrowed through workshops to about 30, from whom McCarron was chosen late in the process; Forrest was the second boy auditioned for young John, and Mullan was struck by how alike the two looked.[13](https://tribecafilm.com/news/512c03301c7d76d9a90001e4-peter-mullan-neds)
## Release and reception
The film premiered at the 2010 [Toronto International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/toronto-international-film-festival) subtitled for audiences unfamiliar with the Glaswegian dialect, and Screen Daily predicted it would be the most commercial of Mullan's three features.[19](https://www.screendaily.com/-neds/5018086.article) It won the Golden Shell for Best Film and the Silver Shell for Best Actor for Conor McCarron at the San Sebastián International Film Festival in 2010.[8](https://sinekatalog.com/en/films/neds.html) McCarron was also nominated for a British Independent Film Award as Most Promising Newcomer and won the London Film Critics' Circle Young British Performer of the Year award for 2011.[20](https://www.tvguide.com/movies/neds/2030160203/)
The UK release followed on 21 January 2011, debuting at number 10 with £283.2 thousand and running 12 chart weeks for a total of £965.3 thousand from roughly 178,766 tickets.[9](https://saltypopcorn.co.uk/movies/neds) [Box Office Mojo](https://www.edgepedia.org/box-office-mojo) records a worldwide gross of $2,019,939, beginning with a Spanish release on 3 December 2010, with the United Kingdom contributing $1,582,340.[21](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt1560970/) In the United States, Tribeca Films gave it a limited theatrical release on 13 May 2011.[12](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Neds)
Critics responded strongly. Rotten Tomatoes reports 94 percent approval from 35 reviews.[10](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/neds) Reviewers compared it to [Shane Meadows](https://www.edgepedia.org/shane-meadows)'s This Is England for its depiction of disenfranchised youth, while noting the two directors differ in tone, and saw echoes of [Ken Loach](https://www.edgepedia.org/ken-loach)'s social realism alongside the exuberant gang violence of Scorsese and A Clockwork Orange.[6](https://www.timeout.com/movies/neds) • [3](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/neds-18-2190037.html) Time Out praised its stark look, heightened performances, and sequences of expressive fantasy, including one involving lions, while finding it a little too long in its final stages.[6](https://www.timeout.com/movies/neds) The British Board of Film Classification rated the film 18 for very strong language, strong violence including a stabbing, and a glue-sniffing scene; the cinema version ran 123 minutes 41 seconds and the 2011 home-entertainment version 118 minutes 40 seconds.[2](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/neds-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc00mjmxmjg) Australia's classification board rated it MA 15+ for strong violence and coarse language.[22](https://www.classification.gov.au/titles/neds)
## References
1. [Neds, RTE movie review](https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/movie-reviews/2011/0120/447951-neds/)
2. [Neds, British Board of Film Classification](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/neds-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc00mjmxmjg)
3. [Neds (18), The Independent](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/neds-18-2190037.html)
4. [Making Neds, Screen Daily](https://www.screendaily.com/making-neds/5005249.article)
5. [Neds full cast & crew, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1560970/fullcredits/)
6. [Neds, Time Out review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/neds)
7. [Murray, J., Neds (academic film profile), University of Edinburgh](https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/files/19960318/Neds_AVPP.pdf)
8. [Neds, Sinekatalog](https://sinekatalog.com/en/films/neds.html)
9. [NEDS, Salty Popcorn](https://saltypopcorn.co.uk/movies/neds)
10. [Neds, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/neds)
11. [Neds, Thinking Faith](https://thinkingfaith.org/articles/film_20101029_2.htm)
12. [Neds (2011), The Numbers](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Neds)
13. [Peter Mullan: NEDS, Tribeca](https://tribecafilm.com/news/512c03301c7d76d9a90001e4-peter-mullan-neds)
14. [Peter Mullan: NED: Non-establishment director, The Skinny](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/interviews/peter-mullan-ned-non-establishment-director)
15. [Rebels with an Effect, Interview Magazine](https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/neds-peter-mullan)
16. [Peter Mullan interview, Alistair Harkness](https://www.alistairharkness.com/features/peter-mullan-interview-neds)
17. [NEDS, 2011 Tribeca Festival](https://tribecafilm.com/festival/archive/neds)
18. [NEDS press notes, Tribeca Film](https://tribecafilm-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/release/press_kit/51/NEDS_Press_Notes__6.29.11_.pdf)
19. [Neds review, Screen Daily](https://www.screendaily.com/-neds/5018086.article)
20. [Neds, TV Guide](https://www.tvguide.com/movies/neds/2030160203/)
21. [Neds (2010), Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt1560970/)
22. [NEDS, Australian Classification](https://www.classification.gov.au/titles/neds)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Coming-of-age films › Coming-of-age films released 2010 onward*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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