Contemporary representation of British youth in films usually takes one of two distinctive routes to attract an audience. The first, which is often found in comedies, is a light-hearted, playful middle class youth, such as in St Trinian's. The second is much more common, being used in a variety of shows and film, including White Girl, This Is England and About A Girl. This second type, which can be further split depending on the intentions of the director, usually shows working class youths, who have struggled to find an identity, but eventually discover one that they feel comfortable with, for example, Leah's conversion to Islam in White Girl.
This approach is also taken in the 2006 film, Kidulthood, written by Noel Clarke. However, the antagonists of this film are also from a similar background. This balanced representation of working class British youth, written by someone who has experienced this lifestyle in reality, can be considered a highly accurate representation. In contrast to youths being the main protagonists in This Is England, and the balance in Kidulthood, a 2008 film, Eden Lake, provides a very right-wing view. A horror/thriller film, it portrays youths as a major threat to British society, that plays on, and fuels, the fears of youth caused by various newspaper articles highlighting a supposed increase in violent crimes committed by the British youth. While each of these films represents British youth with a slightly different approach, both represent them similarly to White Girl, This Is England, and About A Girl. For example, This Is England, Kidulthodd, and Eden Lake all feature a tribalistic group of youths that care only for their own, while the disenfranchisement shown in White Girl is also present as an underlying theme in Kidulthood.
