Christopher Walken is the dogged drug-lord determined to keep his empire together, in Abel Ferrara's brutally gritty crime thriller. After being released from prison Frank White (Walken) decides to go for the jugular and employ the most brutal tactics to retain his empire's prominence. But his unstable approach to business management threatens to take down the whole venture.

Our Cinema Producer Thea Berry talks us through why she's picked King of New York:

"Abel Ferrara is a master of atmosphere and especially in King of New York where we’re plunged into a frantic city on the verge of madness. Christopher Walken plays a psychotic drug lord bent on sharing his bloodstained profits with the poor. And his icy performance epitomises what’s at the heart of Ferrara’s work; a total lack of fear to directly confront human complacency and morality presented in a super-stylish and chillingly ambiguous way.

I discovered the work of Abel Ferrara last summer when we screened his cult slasher The Driller Killer as part of a repertory double bill and have avidly watched everything I could get my hands on since."

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