A Way of Life

A Way of Life is a 2004 British drama film directed by Amma Asante starring Stephanie James and Brenda Blethyn. It is Asante's debut film. The film portrays Leigh-Anne Williams, a teenage mother living in a dilapidated Cardiff council flat. Brenda Blethyn plays the child's paternal grandmother. Plot Leigh-Anne Williams is still only in her late teens and has already suffered the suicide of her mother when she was a child, as well as abuse at the hands of her father, and they worry about their younger sister who is in her early teens. Their father later married their mother's sister and they have a much younger daughter together. Leigh-Anne has had a baby daughter Rebecca, less than a year old, and is very protective towards her. The father is in prison, but his mother remains in contact with Leigh-Anne and suggests that Rebecca would be better off in her care. Leigh-Anne has made quite a few significant enemies in her local area, a deprived part of South Wales. She is involved in constant confrontations with her Turkish Muslim neighbour Hassan Osman, and is so desperate to support her baby that she will commit shocking acts in order to get money. She tricks a much older man out of £30 by pretending to be a pimp. She gets a younger girl (under the age of consent) to have sex with the man, which doesn't come to the attention of the police but is witnessed by Hassan's teenage daughter.