Film debut for doomed Mardyke

18 September 2009

Katie Jarvis in Fish Tank

THE Mardyke Estate has a starring role in a new British film that is receiving widepsread critical acclaim.

Providing a stark backdrop to Fish Tank, which won this year's Cannes Film Festival Jury prize, the Rainham estate plays a big part in the gritty tale about abusive love.

The estate is portrayed in the film as a hotbed of drink, crime and broken dreams in a stark documentary style.

The central character, 15-year-old Mia, is given hope for a better life when her mum's new boyfriend (Michael Fassbender) appears to show an interest in her dancing ambitions.

Expelled from school, facing being sent to a pupil referral unit and unable to make friends, she bonds with Connor over a shared love of music, particularly California Dreamin' by Bobby Womack, a song poles apart from life on the estate.

The teenager, played by Katie Jarvis, 17, was spotted by a casting assistant arguing with her boyfriend at Tilbury Town train station, which also features in the film.

She is pictured above on the Marsh Way flyover for the film's main promotional photograph, with the towers of the Mardyke Estate behind her.

Director Andrea Arnold originally wanted to film the story in her home county of Kent, but changed her mind.

She said: "I drove out from east London and loved it straight away.

"The madness of the A13, the steaming factories and the open spaces, the wilderness."

The mix of 550 high rise and low rise flats were built in the 1960s to house workers from the Ford factory in Dagenham.

As part of a £80million regeneration plan, the development is slowly being demolished, with the main tower blocks being knocked down next month.

It will be rebuilt as the Orchard Estate in five years' time.