An unspoken issue in the UK, widely unacknowledged past its immediate influence until recent years, understanding of county lines drug trafficking has begun to offer a new explanation for children and teenagers reported missing across the country. Less likely to be the target of police suspicion, the process through which drug networks manipulate youth accomplices into their operations sees them transported outside of their home cities, hidden from view in the UK’s suburbs and coastal towns.

In short film Out There, director Alex Donaldson commits the accounts of three London teenagers to film – each having found themselves involved in county lines trafficking first-hand. Connected via conversations with charities, youth workers, and solicitors, and retold through actors to secure their anonymity, the film centers verbatim interviews collected in 2022, as they reflect on their experiences and the circumstances that found them there.

Shot on 16mm between London and Sheerness-on-Sea in Kent, Donaldson captures the familiarity and disconnectedness told through these stories, overcoming access issues to illuminate the dark realities of county lines for those initiated into it. Questioning how a form of youth exploitation can be deprioritized by institutional racism and class prejudices, with accountability placed on young people made complicit through bribes, threats, or inflated promises, Out There outlines the complexity of Britain’s county lines issue – its secrecy maintained by red tape and fear of consequences.