Run

Down-trodden single parent Carol works in a phone warehouse - from which she steals phones which she sells to a Chinese girl fence called Ying - gets no help with her lazy, vicious sons from her useless ex-husband Kieran. When one of the boys, Dean, attacks his girlfriend Tracey, he and his brother Terry kick an innocent onlooker to death. Carol finds blood on their clothes which they explain as being obtained in a fight and when the police call she initially covers for the boys. Ultimately she learns from Tracey what actually happened but Kieran brutally advises her to keep quiet. Carol disagrees and, realizing that the boys will turn into copies of their father, knows what she must do.

Illegal Chinese immigrant Ying is dependent upon Gao, brutal leader of the Snakehead gang, who sends her onto the streets of Brixton selling fake DVDs and fenced accessories. When she fails to earn enough to pay him her keep he rapes her in his car but, following a police raid on illegal immigrants, Ying flees. She finds sanctuary with Jamal, a kindly, divorced barber and stays with him in return for doing his cleaning. Whilst Ying is out Gao's thugs force their way into the barber shop, trashing it and assaulting Jamal. When Ying returns Jamal plans for them to go away together for a new life but, seeing herself as a liability, she leaves without him and goes to her aunt's house instead.