Set on the mean streets of Cape Town, South Africa, this blood-and-tattoo-ink-soaked crime story digs into the generation-spanning legacy of gang violence among the poorest of the poor.

Newly released from prison after a long stretch, hardman Farakhan (Brendon Daniels, rather good) has to shoot the guy who killed his father and then squatted the family shanty in order to get his home back, which is one way of dealing with inefficient housing policy. His actions have repercussions for others in the neighbourhood, most notably stolid 13-year-old chess prodigy Ricardo (Jezzriel Skei), and local-girl-made-good Leila (Lindiwe Matshikiza), a doctor studying in the UK but back for her own father’s funeral. There’s a tangential storyline about a cop pursuing a serial killer that rather over-eggs the pudding.

Director Ian Gabriel has mastered the street-style rulebook as written by films such as City of God and Amores Perros, and has transposed the tricks effectively to this relatively little-seen setting, but he doesn’t have much new to add to the mix.