Breaking And Entering | 2006
In the last cinematic release of Anthony Minghella (director of The English Patient and The Talented Mr Ripley), teenage Miro (Rafi Gavron), a refugee from Sarajevo, lives on a north London estate with his mother Amira (Juliette Binoche), using parkour skills to break into offices and steal computers.
Among his targets is the office of successful architect Will Francis (Jude Law), who’s working on the extensive renovation of the old St Pancras Station in King’s Cross to become St Pancras International on Euston Road, London N1.
Amira and Miro live on the Alexandra Road Estate, Rowley Way, South Hampstead NW8 – you might recognise this as the same brutalist concrete estate where Eggsy (Tamron Egerton) lives in Kingsman: The Secret Service.
Will, however, shares a very desirable canalside house with partner Liv (Robin Wright) at 4 St Mark’s Crescent in Primrose Hill, north of Regent’s Park.
His much-burgled ‘Green Effect’ office, supposedly in ‘King’s Cross’, is an old iron foundry, now the Ironworks studios on Dace Road, Hackney E3, overlooking the River Lea.
Avuncular cop Bruno Fella (Ray Winstone) gives Miro a serious talking to in front of Alexandra Palace in Muswell Hill. Built in 1873 to rival South London’s Crystal Palace, the building was twice damaged by fire but went on to become the BBC’s main transmission centre for the 20 years from 1936 to 1956.
The courthouse, in which Will faces up to his responsibilities and gives Amira and Miro a second chance in life, is Bethnal Green Town Hall, Cambridge Heath Road at Patriot Square, E2. This much used location, which used to house the London Film Office, has been seen in Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, Joe Wright’s Atonement and Todd Haynes’ Velvet Goldmine.
