Rather than just another depressive movie about the horrors of drug dependency, Street Days examines Georgian's middle aged 'lost generation' who failed to adapt to the post-Soviet age. Checkie emerges as the protagonist in the film and as his attempts to score lead him to get mixed up with a couple of corrupt policemen and the cocky teenage son of an old, now successful, school friend. Checkie's drug dependency, and his lip service to going clean, provides the background as he confronts a series of moral challenges as he tries to be the good guy that everyone remembers him as before he became an addict and as he tries to make things up to his financially struggling ex-wife and son. The actor playing Checkie, in his first film, is utterly compelling as he struggles with impossible dilemmas and the senior cop is deliciously malevolent. The film has a great streak of black humour running through it, and the near farce on occasion, rather than detracting from the drama, helps to keep the characters human and emphasise the hole that Checkie is digging, and being dug, into. All in all, a very interesting first feature and another excellent choice at the Edinburgh International Film Festival
