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Unless you’ve ever shared a cell with any of the cast, The End is as close to the ‘true confessions of a cockney gangster’ as you’re ever likely to get.

Brought to the screen by the twin daughters of infamous East End rogue Les Falco – and therefore granted a level of access your average documentary maker could only dream of – Nicola and Teena Collins have produced a work that’s not only hard-hitting but tragic, funny, smart, stylish and brutally, disturbingly honest.

They explore the lives of a highly motivated and dangerous group of their father’s associates, each of whom escaped extreme East End poverty via criminality and, in their own individual ways, helped cement the area’s fearsome reputation.

Bank robbers, debt collectors, bare-knuckle boxers, ‘negotiators’, unlicensed fighters – the film’s cast all provide a unique and alarming insight into a shady underworld most scriptwriters and directors fail to reflect.
‘My grand vision was to make an artistic, honest art film, not something cheap that you rush out for a profit,’ says Nicola. ‘We never saw dollar signs, we wanted to do something heartfelt. We know these guys on a different level; they’ve been through so much in their lives and you can see that in their faces. My main goal was to make a brutally honest film: it’s a slice of history for me.’

Moments of undeniable comedy intersperse stories of ‘severe cuttings’ and cruel and mindful acts of violence. If most of the camera-work is done in intense close-up, it’s because these are the sort of men who thrive on being in people’s faces.

‘I definitely wanted a sense of that in the film,’ Nicola assures us. ‘This isn’t a fly-on-the-wall documentary. You can’t follow these guys around doing what they do, it just wouldn’t happen. By shooting it up close and using the music the way we did, I really wanted you to feel like you were in their world. Just for an hour or so, I want you to feel like you’re there in the same room with them. I wanted it to be intimate and the viewer to be fully involved. We shot in black and white because the guys really do see things in black and white. There’s no grey areas with them.’

Nick Page’s score not only underpins the film’s grave content but, alongside the deliberate camera-work and editing, gives a unique take on the bleak, dispassionate loneliness of the career criminal.

‘It took me three years of my life and lots of hard work to make,’ says Nicola. ‘If my main intention was glamourising crime and violence, then that would make me stupid, wouldn’t it? It was never about that. It’s all about the characters. Glamour and my film don’t go together. I call it The End for a reason.’

As well as being a candid portrayal of a bygone gangster life, The End’s carving visceral edge and acute sense of storytelling give it bags of rewatch value and quotability. A darn fine piece of work, The End deserves all its praises.

An interview with LES FALCO

Maxim: What was your main reason for agreeing to do the film?
LF: Let’s just say I call my daughters Ronnie and Reggie – they can be very persuasive.
Maxim: How did you persuade your associates to get involved?
LF: They done it out of respect for me and my daughters, really. I don’t think they would have done it for anyone else. And they knew the girls wouldn't let ’em down. There was a lot of trust involved.
Maxim: Were there any bits of material you insisted didn’t make the final cut?
LF: Not really, no. There were some things that couldn’t be talked about, for obvious reasons, but as far as I know, people were just genuinely honest throughout.
Maxim: What, for you, was the film’s main message?
LF: For me personally, there isn’t a message, it’s just an honest piece of history. It’s a story about us and about the East End. About a time when you had to fight your corner to get your piece of cake.
Maxim: What do you miss most about the old East End?
LF: One word: people. I could name so many characters now. Really nice people. People who had been through two wars and still had a smile on their face. People don’t laugh anymore. They did then.
Maxim: How has crime changed?
LF: When I was in that area, things were different. We ruled our own jungles. We didn't involve anyone that wasn't involved already. It was all about getting money. Today, some people do
it just for fun. We all just wanted a pound note.

An interview with VICTOR DARK

Maxim: What was your main reason for agreeing to do the piece?
VD: I’ve done a few films: I done Hard Bastards. I just done Danny Dyer’s thing. I done this one for Les though. I hope it does well for him.
Maxim: Do you enjoy the camera?
VD: I’ve got no problems in front of the camera. As long as you’re true to your word when you are in front of it. And all of us lot are.
Maxim: How has the East End changed?
VD:The East End has been blown to smithereens. It's totally changed. No-one talks to each other. It’s absolutely gone. the cockney doesn't exist anymore. You used to see the old Pearly Kings walking up the road going for a drink, now you never see that. Never. Today’s kids have got no respect either. London is a ghetto now.
Maxim: How has crime changed?
VD: I’ve never robbed a working class person in my life. Banks, sorting offices – you know, big companies who’ll get their money back. Each set of people have got their own scam going. Drug dealers should be shot in the back of the head. Especially heroin dealers. Kids walk the street giving it the large one and when they end up in the prison system they crumble. I’ve seen it happen. They don’t realise the consequences of their actions. People like me and Les know the score, we’ve got our old-school beliefs. If I was a kid, I’d take my hood down so as not to scare a granny, not fucking do it deliberately. I help grannies across the road. And some people wonder why. Idiots.
Maxim: What did you think of the final edit?
VD: The End is a portrayal of how we was brought up, how we dealt with stuff and how we stuck together. I liked it.

The End is out on DVD on Monday 8 June

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