Film

Hyena

Name: Hyena
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Released: 2015
Cast: Peter Ferdinando, Stephen Graham, Neil Maskell, Elisa Lasowski, MyAnna Buring

Other titles called Hyena: the 2020 series (SBS).

Hyena is a brutally grounded crime thriller about corrupt Metropolitan Police officers navigating London's underworld as Eastern European gangs reshape the city's drug trade. Shot with documentary realism and a suffocating sense of moral compromise, it's a descent into institutional rot for viewers drawn to procedural darkness without Hollywood artifice.

TMDb rating

2.9

If you liked this

The Godfather1972

The definitive text on institutional corruption and the seduction of power. Like Hyena, it asks whether good men can survive bad systems, and answers with devastating clarity.

But Nearly three and a half hours, operatic in scale—a completely different aesthetic than Hyena's grimy street-level realism.

Serpico1973

Al Pacino as a cop who won't bend. Directly confronts the machinery that protects dirty police, with the same unflinching anger about institutional betrayal that drives Hyena.

But Dated film stock and pacing will feel slow to viewers raised on contemporary thrillers; the 1970s earnestness may read as quaint.

Dirty Harry1971

Clint Eastwood as a cop operating outside the law because the system failed. The moral ambiguity about whether rule-breaking is justified in a corrupt city resonates directly with Hyena's world.

But Plays now as mythologically macho in ways that feel remote from the messy humiliation of Hyena's officers.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Hyena

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Hunt2012

Both examine how institutions protect themselves through inertia and silence, leaving individuals crushed beneath the machinery.

Haneke-level investigation of institutional indifference and accusation without proof. A man destroyed by a system that moves forward regardless. The tone is different—it's colder, more Nordic—but the suffocation is identical.

But Danish, deliberately paced, with an ending that offers no catharsis or justice. The moral stuckness will feel punishing rather than clarifying to some viewers.

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia1974

Sam Peckinpah's portrait of men degraded by violence and crime. The same sense that corruption isn't a choice but a slow erasure of self, filmed with unflinching moral weight.

But Surreal and brutal in ways that alienate as much as they disturb. Hyena is grounded; this floats in nightmare logic.

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia poster

In the Cut2003

Jane Campion examines desire and complicity among people on the wrong side of the law. Dense, sexually charged, and uninterested in easy moral judgments—the same moral fog that suffocates Hyena.

But Glacial pacing and explicit content feel deliberately obscure. Mark Ruffalo's detective offers no heroic anchor, which will frustrate viewers wanting clarity.

Sexy Beast2001

Ray Winstone as a criminal trying to escape, disrupted by a worse man. Explores the economy of violence and hierarchy in crime with visceral intensity and gallows humor.

But Ben Kingsley's performance is so abrasive it overshadows everything else; some find the film's extremity self-indulgent.

American Gangster2007

Ridley Scott's portrait of police corruption mirroring criminal enterprise. Denzel Washington's drug lord and Russell Crowe's honest cop define each other—two systems operating by the same rules.

But Nearly three hours, and the Hollywood sheen feels miles from Hyena's grainy despair. Spectacular where Hyena is claustrophobic.

Miami Vice2006

Michael Mann's cops blur so completely with criminals they investigate that the distinction evaporates. Stylish and morally poisoned—the aesthetic opposite of Hyena but the spiritual twin.

But Incomprehensibly plotted, shot so dark you'll strain to see it, and deliberately abstract in ways that actively repel conventional viewers.

Four Lions2010

Chris Morris treats violent extremists as ordinary, flawed people rather than monsters. That moral complexity—seeing the human inside the system—matches Hyena's approach to corruption.

But Mixing comedy with terrorism alienates viewers on both sides. Either the jokes trivialize violence or the violence negates the comedy, depending on your tolerance.