Writer and Director: Carol Morley
The stories of working class young women have been long hidden, particularly those entering the music industry, but more recently British filmmakers have turned their attention to girls and women’s live in areas beyond the big cities, 1980s childhoods with few opportunities to progress beyond the area in which you were born. Carol Morley’s new film is a traditional coming-of-age story, 7 Miles Out screening at the BFI London Film Festival, and like many British films of its type enjoys the visual style of the era and the inspiration that young people took from its music – in this case Joy Division.
When Ann is in primary school her beloved dad takes his own life, a fact she discovers by mistake but tells everyone he died in a car crash. Growing up 7 miles from Manchester, Ann never leaves the small area where she lives but forms a close friendship with new girl Helen that takes them through their teenage years and into adulthood where they dream of forming their own band.
Morley’s film is strongest on the reality of life for working class women, and while Ann’s motivation stems from her father, it is the background of her mum’s grief and her friend’s mum’s alcoholism that really strikes a chord, women left to raise children by themselves by men who leave (one way or another) and the mental health, financial and social difficulties it leaves them with. Their struggle to cope gives their daughters like Helen and Ann the freedom to run around with no parental framework to rely on.
7 Miles Out is also typically British in its presentation of an underdog narrative, a sense of ordinary people doing the best they can in limited circumstances and a kind of romanticism about these past eras. Morley enjoys the trappings of the 80s in the visual style of the film on the alternative music scene, giving her characters a punky aesthetic in lurid makeup and clothing, but this clearly autobiographical story never allows itself too much grit. It may deal with difficult issues like suicide, poverty, teenage pregnancy and abandonment – “no one ever comes back” Ann complains of her older siblings who move to London – but the tone is always largely comic, optimistic and carefree with moments of poignancy.
There are strong performances from Lucy Halliday as teenage Ann who stumbles through life along with friend Leila Entwistle as Helen who eventually forges her own path, and as a story of enduring, complex and changing female friendship during formative periods, it certainly holds a believable charm. Gemma Whelan is particularly good as Ann’s mother whose ability to cope fluctuates, while a cameo from Aidan Gillen is quietly meaningful as her almost silent but impactful father.
Very British, 7 Miles Out is an enjoyable look at innovation in alternative music from a woman’s perspective, even if it doesn’t even attempt to break any of the rules of filmmaking.
7 Miles Out is screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2026 from 7-18 October.
