Around twenty years ago, writer and director Shane Meadows made psychological thriller Dead Man’s Shoes and it changed his life. The film premiered at Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2004 and has gone on to become a cult classic amongst film fanatics. Paddy Considine co-wrote the screenplay and also stars as Richard, a violent soldier who comes back to his hometown after years away. While he was gone, his vulnerable brother Anthony (Toby Kebbell) was targeted by a local gang fronted by drug dealer Sonny (Gary Stretch), so Richard is out for revenge. This year, Shane Meadows returned to Edinburgh to celebrate the anniversary with a retrospective screening, and I was delighted to chat with him beforehand…

How do you feel about the cult following and legacy that Dead Man’s Shoes now has, decades after it was made?

It’s mad and comes as a real surprise when something like that keeps earning fans. When it first came out, there was another film called Saw that came out literally at the same time. That ended up with sequels and was a bit of a revenge horror thing…so we ended up not being in the cinema for very long and didn’t really make a splash! Then it became one of those films that got handed around on VHS and DVD as the years rolled by. I don’t get recognised a lot but when I do, people want to talk about Dead Man’s Shoes. It’s kind of mind blowing. 

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