| Cass | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical Poster | |
| Directed by | Jon S. Baird |
| Written by | Cass Pennant |
| Starring | Nonso Anozie Natalie Press Reece Allen |
| Music by | Matteo Scumaci |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Optimum Releasing |
Release date |
|
Running time | 100 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Cass is a 2008 British crime drama film. It stars Nonso Anozie as Cass Pennant and is directed by Jon S. Baird.
Cass is based on the true story of the life of Cass Pennant, adapted from his book. The film tells of how he was adopted by an elderly white couple in 1958 and brought up in Slade Green, an all-white area of London. Cass is forced to endure racist bullying on a daily basis from local children, who also ridicule his feminine-sounding name, "Carol", a name given to him at birth. Cass finds through violence the respect he never had and becomes addicted to the buzz of fighting. Cass leads the Inter City Firm to victories against large hooligan firms, such as Leeds in 1980, but becomes frustrated with the lack of publicity the ICF are receiving. So he creates cards with the infamous slogan, "Congratulations, you have just met the famous ICF", and gives a TV interview, increasing the firm's notoriety for humiliation, their speciality. However, the government under Margaret Thatcher begins to come down hard on hooliganism, and after an organised attack on a group of Newcastle United supporters, Cass is imprisoned for four years. Whilst in Wormwood Scrubs, Cass begins writing his autobiography, in the hope he can generate some income upon the book being published; however his writings are confiscated by the prison upon his release.
Cass is delighted to receive a hero's welcome upon his return, and begins dating Elaine (Natalie Press). This, as well as Cass's rejection of his biological parents after their attempts to contact him, improves his relationship with his adoptive parents after they began to disapprove of his violent lifestyle. Despite having a good relationship with Elaine, Cass is still lured to the violence of hooliganism, and when one of his best friends, Prentice (Gavin Brocker), is attacked by Arsenal supporters with knives, Cass seeks revenge. He is stabbed in the following fight, and Elaine is disgusted, fearing he is returning to his old ways, as she reveals she is pregnant with his child.
As time progresses to the early 1990s, the ecstasy era takes over, and hooliganism becomes less of an attraction for Cass, and for many other hooligan firms. By 1992, he has settled down in Penge, South London, with his young son and Elaine, who is pregnant again. Cass gets a job as a bouncer outside nightclubs, working for Ray (Tamer Hassan), a long-time friend from his ICF days. However one evening, just after starting a shift at the nightclub, Cass is shot three times by the group of Arsenal supporters that he feuded with back in the 1980s. Cass survives, but wakes up to hear the tragic news that his mother has died.
In the following weeks, Cass is haunted by his demons after the shooting; he sees visions of his attacker, he can't sleep and on one occasion, makes a violent outburst at his son. Cass's friend Ray has tracked down his attackers and offers Cass the opportunity to kill them. Cass is taken to a pub and holds a gun to his attacker's head at point-blank range, but decides not to pull the trigger. The film ends as Cass walks away from the pub and into the distance.
Pennant himself plays a cameo role in the movie as the character "Biggs", who is one of the bouncers.
Teenage section;
Young section;
The Football Factory is a 2004 British sports drama film written by AJ Lovell and directed by Nick Love and starring Danny Dyer, Tamer Hassan, Frank Harper, Roland Manookian, Neil Maskell and Dudley Sutton. The film is loosely based on the novel of the same name by John King and the first foray into filmmaking by video game producers Rockstar Games, credited as executive producers. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 14 May 2004.
Football hooliganism, also known as soccer hooliganism, football rioting or soccer rioting, constitutes violence and other destructive behaviors perpetrated by spectators at association football events. Football hooliganism typically involves conflict between pseudo-tribes, formed to intimidate and attack supporters of other teams. Certain clubs have long-standing rivalries with other clubs and hooliganism associated with matches between them can be more severe. An example of this is the Devon Derby . Conflict may arise at any point, before, during or after matches and occasionally outside of game situations. Participants often select locations away from stadiums to avoid arrest by the police, but conflict can also erupt spontaneously inside the stadium or in the surrounding streets. In extreme cases, hooligans, police and bystanders have been killed, and riot police have intervened. Hooligan-led violence has been called "aggro" and "bovver".
The Inter City Firm (ICF) is an English football hooligan firm associated with West Ham United, which was mainly active in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. The name came from the use of InterCity trains to travel to away games. They were the subject of a 1985 Thames Television documentary, Hooligan.
I.D. is a 1995 film made by BBC Films about football hooliganism, directed by Philip Davis, written by Vincent O'Connell, and starring Reece Dinsdale, Sean Pertwee and Warren Clarke. It is set in 1988 in the Shadwell area of London, England and is a story about a group of Metropolitan Police officers who are sent undercover to infiltrate a gang of dangerous football hooligans.
Andy Nicholls, is a Welsh former football hooligan, manager, and author of a number of books on football hooliganism. He has been banned from every ground in England and Wales. He was banned for life from the home ground of the team he supports but the club allowed him back in due to the amount of work he does for their charity Everton in the Community Everton, Goodison Park. and has served three months in prison for football related violence. Showing no empathy, Nicholls has said he "would change nothing" about his time as a football hooligan, including "pillaging and dismantling European cities, leaving horrified locals to rebuild in time for our next visit" and having "seen visiting fans at Goodison Park pleading not to be carved open after straying too far from the safety of their numbers;" however, he is wary of violence coming to his own doorstep since he has had children.
The Millwall Bushwackers are a football firm associated with Millwall Football Club. Millwall have a historic association with football hooliganism, which came to prevalence in the 1970s and 1980s, with a firm known originally as F-Troop, eventually becoming more widely known as the Millwall Bushwackers, who were one of the most notorious hooligan gangs in England. On five occasions The Den was closed by the Football Association and the club has received numerous fines for crowd disorder. Millwall's hooligans are regarded by their rivals as amongst the stiffest competition, with Manchester United hooligan Colin Blaney describing them as being amongst the top four firms in his autobiography 'Undesirables', and West Ham hooligan Cass Pennant featuring them on his Top Boys TV YouTube channel, on which their fearsome reputation for violence was described.
Tamer Hassan is a British actor. He is best known for his role as the leader of the Millwall firm, opposite Danny Dyer in The Football Factory (2004). He has also appeared in Layer Cake (2004), Batman Begins (2005), The Business (2005), Kick-Ass (2010), The Hooligan Factory (2014), Game of Thrones (2016) and Snatch (2017–2018).
The Real Football Factories is a documentary series shown on the Bravo television channel in the United Kingdom and created by Zig Zag Productions. The show looks at the in-depth life of football hooligans and hooligan firms. Interviews are conducted with past and present hooligans.
Rise of the Footsoldier is a British gangster film franchise written and directed by Julian Gilbey, Will Gilbey, Ricci Harnett, Zackary Adler, Andrew Loveday and Nick Nevern, distributed by Optimum Releasing. The franchise and its first two films are based on true events featured in the autobiography of Inter City Firm hooligan turned gangster Carlton Leach before later films focus on the lives of drug dealers Pat Tate and Tony Tucker who were gunned down in the Rettendon murders in 1995.
Nonso Anozie is a British actor. On television, he is known for his roles as Xaro Xhoan Daxos in the HBO series Game of Thrones (2012), R.M. Renfield on the Sky series Dracula (2013), Abraham Kenyatta on the CBS series Zoo (2015–2017), and Tommy Jepperd on the Netflix series Sweet Tooth (2021–2024). For the latter, he won a Children's and Family Emmy Award and was nominated for a BAFTA.
The 6.57 Crew is an English football hooligan firm and vigilante group linked to Portsmouth F.C. The name, 6.57 Crew is taken from the time that the Portsmouth to London Waterloo train left Portsmouth and Southsea station. The firm were one of the most active firms in the 1980s.
Carol "Cass" Pennant, is an English writer and former football hooligan.
Occupation is a three-part drama serial broadcast by BBC One in June 2009. It was written by Peter Bowker and produced by Kudos for BBC Northern Ireland.
The Capital City Service (CCS) is a Scottish football hooligan firm associated with Hibernian F.C. and active from 1984 when the casual hooligan subculture took off in Scotland. Their roots were in the previous incarnations of hooligan groups attached to the club and also the wider Edinburgh and surrounding area's gang culture. They are more commonly known in the media and amongst the public as the Hibs Casuals, although within the hooligan network they may also be referred to as Hibs Boys.
The Arsenal firms are groups of football hooligans who are fans of the Arsenal Football Club. There are two Arsenal firms, The Gooners and The Herd. The Gooners were a violent football hooligan firm mainly active in the 1980s and 1990s. However, the name is now used by most non-hooligan Arsenal supporters.
The 2000 UEFA Cup Final Riots, also known as the Battle of Copenhagen, were a series of riots in City Hall Square, Copenhagen, Denmark between fans of English football team Arsenal and Turkish team Galatasaray around the 2000 UEFA Cup Final on 17 May 2000. Four people were stabbed in the scuffles, which also involved fans from other clubs and were viewed by the media as part of a retaliation for the killing of two Leeds United fans by Galatasaray supporters the month before.
Beginning in at least the 1960s, the United Kingdom gained a reputation worldwide for football hooliganism; the phenomenon was often dubbed the British or English Disease. However, since the 1980s and well into the 1990s the UK government has led a widescale crackdown on football related violence. While football hooliganism has been a growing concern in some continental European countries in recent years, British football fans now tend to have a better reputation abroad. Although reports of British football hooliganism still surface, the instances now tend to occur at pre-arranged locations rather than at the matches themselves.
The Hooligan Factory is a 2014 football hooliganism spoof film directed, co-written and starring Nick Nevern. The film heavily parodies titles from the British hooligan genre films and focuses mainly on The Firm, along with The Football Factory, Rise of the Footsoldier, I.D., Green Street and Cass.
Bill Gardner is an English football supporter, former football hooligan and co-author of books on football hooliganism.