Wasteman

UNITED KINGDOM, 2026. Directed by Cal McMau.

RELEASE DATE: 20 February 2026 (UK). Consult our Instagram page to find screenings in your country through our assistant (in bio), Immerso.

Prison drama Wasteman is one of the best films to be released this year. Directed by Cal McMau, the story is immediately gripping in the way it builds up suspense and it’s refreshingly convincing from a dramatic perspective. The plot focusses on the psychological pressures experienced by inmates, but it goes beyond mere fights and gang dynamics.

Taylor (David Jonsson) is a young man heading towards early parole after several years of imprisonment. He is eager to start anew and, above all, try to repair his relationship with his estranged son. Unbeknownst to the prison officers, all the inmates follow a set of unspoken rules, using favours and intimidation to establish their authority within the premises. Taylor has learnt to navigate these complex dynamics and the dangers they pose, but just as he finds himself one step away from freedom, the arrival of a new cellmate reshuffles the cards.

Dee (Tom Blyth) is the new arrival set to share Taylor’s space. He’s a tough and unpredictable guy but he’s also charismatic and surprisingly supportive. In spite of his best efforts, Taylor can’t seem to keep himself out of trouble and gets caught in a downward spiral. The repeating cycle that keeps pulling him in seems to have a magnetic force, and there’s a sense of inevitability in his fall. Ironically, the institution where reformation is meant to take place is portrayed as a minefield of dangers where temptation lurks at every corner. The finale is paradoxical too.

The tension is dosed craftily until it reaches a fever pitch, and it’s rendered all the more intense by the claustrophobic setting which narrows the characters’ choices considerably. This is mirrored in the camera work, which abounds in tight close-ups and surveillance style angles, coupled with a grim, cold aesthetic. The ambivalent, passive protagonist is forced to take sides, to become an active participant in his present environment. He is shaken out of his moral inertia as he faces cruelty and the consequences of addiction. Somehow, the story is simultaneously about forging your own destiny in spite of all obstacles, and a testament to the difficulty of escaping one’s lot, as if it were predestined. 

While keeping it cool outwardly, the protagonist internally wrestles with questions of territorial dominance, reputation and loyalty as he desperately attempts to unshackle himself, figuratively and factually. A brilliant survival-of-the-fittest tale, Wasteman is raw and direct in its delivery, yet at its heart it holds a moral dilemma with a Shakespearean feel that gradually blossoms into view and remains impressed long after.