Mike spends his days on the streets or in friends’ apartments, constantly searching for even a makeshift shelter—a place where he can leave his belongings and feel a moment of safety. When a stranger offers him a helping hand, he decides to seize the opportunity.

Dickinson’s protagonist can be subtle and innocent, full of a charm reminiscent of boyish immaturity, only to transform in an instant into a predator and manipulator. In Mike’s slight, slender figure, the actor captures a childlike anger, youthful insouciance, and a profound hunger for intimacy, but also an aggression that erupts at the most unexpected moments. “The Thug” is a tribute to the cinema of Mike Leigh, and also to the classic British films of the “angry young men” era—a cinema in which tenderness and humor go hand in hand with keen observation and incisive critique of social relations.

The film received the Best Actor award and a FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) distinction in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.