THE APTLY named Shifty is a young Muslim (Riz Ahmed) from an immigrant Pakistani family. He showed promise as a student but has settled into an easy living as a drug dealer. The movie is set over an eventful 24 hours when Chris (Daniel Mays), Shifty’s close friend from schooldays, returns from Manchester, where he has a steady job and a mortgage, to their fictional Essex hometown of Dudlowe.

Not unusually for a scenario hinged on a reunion, there is a dark secret from the past to be confronted, but the movie is more interested in observing what passes for the mundane in Shifty’s daily life: concealing his source of income from his older brother, a devout Muslim, and dealing with addicts, including a lonely, ageing woman (Francesca Annis) and a younger, volatile user (Jay Simpson) whose despairing wife is pregnant with their third child.

Writer-director Eran Creevy doesn’t flinch in depicting the human wreckage caused by cocaine, and he brings moral complexity to the drama: Shifty, played with an easy charm by Ahmed, appears blithely unconcerned by the damaged lives of his customers, and is forced to reconsider his position only when drawn into a dangerous scheme plotted by a rival dealer (Jason Flemyng).

All the key characters are succinctly established as this tightly wound narrative is unfolded in Creevy’s assured feature film debut, which belies its modest budget and tight shooting schedule.

The melancholy mood is enhanced by a lyrical, piano-based score that is atypical for the genre. Composed by Harry Escott and Molly Nyman, it contains refrains that recall compositions by her accomplished father, Michael Nyman.

Directed by Eran Creevy. Starring Riz Ahmed, Daniel Mays, Jason Flemyng, Jay Simpson, Nitin Ganatra, Francesca Annis 16 cert, Cineworld/IFI, Dublin, 85 min