A story of incredibly well-off people doing terribly bad things, **Posh **feels very timely - and we have the first look at the dapper and dangerous gents starring in the new film from Lone Scherfig, director of An Education.
The beautiful boys in penguin suits include Max Irons and Sam Claflin as Miles and Alistair, first years at Oxford University determined to join the notorious Riot Club - a place that can make or break your time in higher education and, quite possibly, life. During the course of a night at the Bull’s Head pub, ambition and avarice lead them down a dark path.
**Posh **is scripted by Laura Wade, adapted from her own play, which opened during the 2010 General Election, where audiences and critics weren’t shy in drawing comparisons between the fictional Riot Club and the Bullingdon Club, of which Prime Minister David Cameron and London Mayor Boris Johnson were members. Yet Scherfig says there is no direct correlation in characters; we won’t be pointing to garrulous but sinister men with straw blond hair thinking “He seems familiar...”
“No, not at all,” says the Danish director. “Also, if you see things that are horrific in this film you shouldn't blame the Bullingdon Club. Or the other way around... You may see things that are charming in Posh and think maybe that is the way the Bullingdon Club is as well!”
The aim, according to Scherfig, is to make a broader film about power and class - one that grips and amuses, as well as provokes. “It’s more dynamic and energetic and dramatic and tough than the films I've done previously.”
Audiences can find out for themselves when Posh opens on September 19, also starring Holliday Grainger, Sam Reid, Douglas Booth, Natalie Dormer and Jessica Brown-Findlay