‘To succeed meant to leave’: inside the jolting film about Brummie estate kids knocked flying by demolition
The film *I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning*, adapted from Keiran Goddard’s Birmingham-set novel, follows five childhood friends as the demolition of their Shard End estate reshapes their lives. It explores how regeneration, class and housing pressures divide the group, while suggesting that people remain connected to the places where they grew up.
Director Clio Barnard says the book’s interior monologues, lack of dialogue and limited action made it difficult to adapt, but its humour, political anger and close view of working-class friendship drew her in. Goddard, who left Birmingham to study at Oxford and now lives in London, identifies with both Patrick, a graduate working as a delivery driver, and Rian, a successful investor backing new flats on the former estate.
- A demolished Birmingham estate sets five friends on different paths.
- The film links housing and regeneration to class and belonging.
- Director Clio Barnard found humour and optimism in a challenging adaptation.
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Shard End is a neighbourhood in Birmingham, and the story centres on five friends who grew up there. Their estate is demolished as part of redevelopment, changing the place they share and the paths open to each of them.
The film is adapted from Keiran Goddard’s novel and directed by Clio Barnard. Its characters face different pressures around housing, work and social class: Patrick is a graduate working as a delivery driver, while Rian invests in new flats built on the former estate.
The story matters because redevelopment can bring new homes while also changing established communities and relationships. It asks what people carry with them when they leave the place where they grew up.
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