K(NOX) – THE ROB KNOX STORY screens online as part of the London Independent Film Festival 2021.
Tickets available at:
So much speculation and determination to get justice, as well as people off the streets away from crime-ridden context, has been brought out recently with the increase in anti-social behaviour, but it isn’t until a more high-profile individual associated with a successful film or television series gets in the news that the impact of his death hits home harder than some.
We learn during the new documentary K(NOX) – THE ROB KNOX STORY that – between April 2008 and March 2019 – a total of 2462 people have lost their lives to violent knife attacks in the UK alone. For child actor and one of the key players in HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD-PRINCE Robert Knox, he became a statistic one night in May 2008 when he was stabbed outside the Metro Bar in Sidcup Kent for defending his brother Jamie.
The film chronicles his upbringing and evolution to becoming a Hogwarts stalwart, as well as his character, with reflections from his family and HARRY POTTER actors like Jim Broadbent and Tom Felton, as well as archive footage showing Knox as his most characterful and positive. We see a very talented actor who was well on the way to being as established as the leads in the film like Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint until the night of his tragic death.
The film attempts to add balance and perspective to the ongoing arguments and discussions that prevention is better than cure, as well as the actions of the charity foundation set up by Knox’s family, which also now includes a Film Academy and Film Festival, which has led to a short film co-starring Ray Winstone as a father who has to defend his property against ASBO youths out to cause trouble, using the moral of why knife crime is so wrong.
The leads in HARRY POTTER paid tribute at the HALF BLOOD PRINCE’s 2009 premiere in London (even Radcliffe reflected in a press junket despite the brief contact he had in the film with Knox at how positive a presence he was) by wearing a white wristband in honour of Knox’s memory. Winstone, himself a former teenage star with films like QUADROPHENIA and SCUM (both 1979) in his filmography, also comments on the moral implications of the story and why it is so important to preserve Rob Knox’s memory.
This documentary is on a level with any number of true crime documentaries, but there is so much to be done for the community – and if a high-profile actor helps bring more involvement and justice, then that is certainly a step in the right direction.
