Writer and actor of Nice Guy, Cavan Clerkin, with his son Kiko who also stars in the film

A Dalston man has written, produced and starred alongside his toddler son in a film about an unemployed stay-at-home dad from Stoke Newington who becomes involved in a criminal underworld.

Cavan Clerkin is the brains behind Nice Guy, which premieres at the East End Film Festival this Saturday, July 7.

In the film, Clerkin feels emasculated by his role as a father, and begins venturing out at night, soon getting entangled in the web of a group of vicious criminals.

“He obviously loves his family, but he’s craving the adventure of his past, and in making that choice he gets drawn into this dark world,” said Clerkin, who has been an actor for 12 years.

“I do a lot of comedy acting and it was an opportunity to do something dark, it was darker than I anticipated, there’s not many laughs in it to be honest,” said Clerkin, whose real-life son Kiko plays his son in the film.

The film is influenced by what Clerkin witnessed growing up as part of a gang in Hoxton, as well as films like Martin Scorcese’s Mean Streets.

Cavan who lives in Kingsland Road, was inspired to write the movie after starting up a film club.

“I got a collection of professional film makers and we’d make these shorts, we would make a film a month, we got to a point where we wanted to be more ambitious and made a feature,” he said.

“We had an £8,000 budget so very little money, but had an amazing bunch of people who really believed in the project,” he added.

He hopes the film will get recognition when it shows at the Genesis Cinema in Tower Hamlets at 7pm on Saturday.

The East End Film Festival runs until Sunday July 8.