‘I just wanna be normal, cos obviously normal I’m not.’

In an east London garage, Darren, a mechanic, oscillates between the highs and lows of his relationship with his French girlfriend, and regret (plus a bit of relish) over the pub brawls and bloody fights that have landed him in prison more than once. As the film unfolds, Darren’s tough-guy exterior cracks apart, revealing a raw sensitivity and emotional vulnerability beneath. Imaginatively conceived, shot and edited by the London-based filmmakers Gemma Atkinson and Fred Grace, Oil & Water is simultaneously a captivating refraction of a troubling masculinity in crisis, and a complex profile of one man grappling with who he is.