Fourteen-year old Sherry and her friend Rachel are enjoying one of their favourite leisure activities: harassing the local Hasidic Jewish population. Best mates Dee and Stacy cruise their Dagenham ‘hood’ on the lookout for the next car to steal.

This revelatory film starts as an examination of girl gangs but evolves into an illuminating exploration of adolescence and the many factors underlying these troubled girls’ behaviour. Rude Girls highlights the difficulties of growing up female in a world of criminal behaviour, meaningless violence and exclusion.