A NORTH-EAST set thriller, first screened at the Venice Film Festival, is being shown in the region for the first time.

Bypass, produced by a Teesside University academic, was described by the New York Times as “beautifully shot and acted”.

The Guardian said the film was “a potent story about Britain’s invisible youth.”

Duane Hopkins’ thriller was produced by Teesside University senior lecturer in media production Samm Haillay.

It will be screened at Middlesbrough Town Hall Crypt when it is transformed into a cinema for the evening at 6pm on Thursday, April 23.

The film exposes the brutal facts of life for young people with no job and little support.

Shot onTyneside, director Hopkins based the film’s characters and storylines on contact with Teesside University Professor Rob MacDonald, co-author of Poverty and Insecurity: Life in Low-pay, No-pay Britain.

Hopkins went on to conduct his own research looking at vulnerable and fringe elements of society, interviewing in hostels and support organisations.

Professor MacDonald said: “Duane was interested in serious academic, sociological research about young people growing up in Britain's poor neighbourhoods, in all its details and nuances. I can see the sociological reality of what we have uncovered over years of in-depth, close up research reflected in Bypass.”

The film has also been screened at the London Film Festival more recently in New York as part of Film Comment Selects.

To buy tickets visit: middlesbroughtownhallonline.co.uk/whats-on/bypass-film-showing-2629