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We Are Monster (2014 film)
We Are Monster is a 2014 psychological drama film based on Robert Stewart and his murder of Zahid Mubarek at Feltham Young Offenders Institute on 21st March 2000. Stewart was played by Leeshon Alexander and Mubarek by Aymen Hamdouchi. The film was directed by Antony Petrou and written by Leeshon Alexander.

Background
Robert Stewart arrived at Feltham Young Offenders Institute on 8th February 2000 having been in correctional facilities for the majority of his teenage years and having been involved in a murder, many assaults, multiple counts of vandalism, harassment cases and racist behaviour along with repeated incidences of self harm. He was known by many to be a very manipulative, dangerous, unhinged, racist young man with some form of severe personality disorder. Somehow this knowledge of Stewart wasn’t passed on, collated or even diagnosed. Or it was simply overlooked or ignored. Either way, through gross negligence and an indifference bordering on institutional culpability laced with institutional racism, a known racist with a Celtic cross and RIP tattooed on his forehead was put into a cell with a young Asian man, Zahid Mubarek, who was due to be released in 6 weeks and who was only convicted of petty theft.

Plot
The story begins with the aftermath of a brutal attack on Mubarek by Stewart on the night of 21st March 2000. Stewart, upon his transfer into an adjacent cell, scrawls a message onto the wall with his rubber plimsoll letting Manchester know that he just killed me padmate. It is the culmination of a 6 week period that we then move back in time to show from its conception, the arrival of Stewart on Swallow wing and his placement in cell 38.

Over this 6 week period the dominant part of Stewarts psyche/personality disorder (which had lain dormant inside his mind or at least only quietly influenced him until now) - manifesting itself as an Alterego - seeks to turn him fully into a monster, having grown tired of watching him only fleetingly realise his potential and having watched Travis (his old cellmate and partner in multiple crimes played by Gethin Anthony) wield too great an influence over him for too long. Stewart and his Alterego converse frequently and we are unsure if Stewart is enacting all these moments or if it is all simply playing out inside his mind. Alterego educates Stewart, feeding any antagonism Stewart feels from the group of black inmates, whilst also fuelling his upset at various imagined foreign enemies exploiting his country and his people. Their interactions become ever more intense and impassioned as Alterego takes Stewart and the audience on a journey into his troubled upbringing, both recent and childhood, to reveal possible influences on his deeply disturbed state of mind through multiple flashbacks whilst also riling Stewart further against the ’injustices’ that have plagued his life since he was just a baby. Over the course of this period we also bear witness to frequent counts of ignorance, ineptitude, negligence and downright indifference on the part of the prison staff regarding the ‘threat’ Stewart might pose, as well as his virulent racism and especially regarding Mubarek and their attitudes towards him and his situation and concerns. All the while Stewart, again influenced by Alterego, grows increasingly irritated by the presence of his soon to be released Asian cellmate. Alterego convinces Stewart to fashion a weapon for self defence but here Stewart is perhaps party to an almost willing manipulation as once the weapon is finished we possibly realise its true purpose, as we culminate with Alterego pulling out all the stops as he forces Stewart to re-live tragic moments from his past to finally drive him towards the monstrous act he himself long wished to be capable of, yet needed some inner demon to provoke from him as he savagely batters Mubarek into a coma just 6 hours before his release. Mubarek never recovered and died a week later.

Cast

 * Leeshon Alexander as Robert Stewart
 * Aymen Hamdouchi as Zahid Mubarek
 * Gethin Anthony as Maurice Travis
 * Sean Sagar as Derrick James
 * Justin Salinger as Chief officer Dean
 * Shazad Latif as Prison officer Shah
 * Doug Allen as Prison Officer Poll
 * Drew Edwards as Prison Officer Hart
 * Robert Swinton as Dr Edwards
 * James Hyland as Father
 * Jennifer Aries as Mother
 * Niall Hayes as Robert Stewart aged 10
 * Faraz Ayub as Hitesh Amin
 * Aiyaz Ahmed as Asian Man
 * Faye Billing as Chatline Woman
 * Harry Coles as Robert Stewart aged 5

Inquiry
In 2006, via a House of Lords Inquiry, six and half years after Zahid's death, the Mubarek family finally received some answers as to how their son was placed in a cell with a known violent racist who had RIP and a celtic cross tattoed on his forehead. The Inquiry stated that Zahid died because of a combination of his cellmate's racism and failures of the Prison Service. It led to nationwide reforms of the prison service and named and criticised 20 prison staff for failing to take action to prevent the death of Zahid.