Babak Anvari’s 2022 film I Came By tells the disjointed story of graffiti artists Jay and Toby. Set in the contemporary United Kingdom, the story addresses colonialism, race, and the curious characteristics of modern, industrial societies in this follow-up to Anvari’s 2016 debut film Under the Shadow. In many ways, I Came By resembles recent films like Get Out (Jordan Peele), Intrusion (Adam Salky and Christopher Sparling), and The Lie (Venna Sud) in that these stories address the consequences of colonialism, the dissolution of traditional family structure, and the reformation of western masculine identity amid rampant individualism as well as the pursuit of efficiency and excellence at any cost. I Came By is a thought-provoking exploration of how large-scale historical processes present themselves in the lives of everyday people.
The story kicks off with two trespassers tagging “I Came By,” in a posh London flat. The message is meant to highlight the vulnerabilities of human existence regardless of racial or class status. The taggers, Jay, and Toby, gain notoriety in London’s underground scene. Jay soon learns he’s to be a father and opts out of tagging for good while Toby persists and tries to convince Jay, a Black man, to remain committed despite Jay’s fears of drawing police attention. Unable to convince Jay, Toby, on a solo tagging project, discovers a disturbing secret in the home of a prominent UK judge: Hector Blake.
Breaking into the home of Hector Blake, Toby follows sounds that lead him into the basement. It is here that Toby discovers the presence of a prisoner and jumps back in alarm before fleeing in panic. As the story unfolds, audiences learn about Hector Blake’s troubled childhood, his wealth coming from the spoils of war, turning a history of violence and theft into a benefit. Hector Blake’s rise to government conceals a life of profound loneliness and inability to form healthy bonds. The brutality of colonialism, in this case, has backfired on its beneficiaries, leaving a profound mark on Blake’s psyche, in an apparent parallel to the larger pathologies characterizing modern, neocolonial societies built on theft and never-ending war.
Toby explains what he saw to Jay and proposes they free the prisoner. Jay, however, remains committed to his family and wary of stepping out of line. Evidently, Hector Blake is known for supporting immigrants and minorities and has a reputation in professional and academic circles as ‘Saint Blake’ an advocate on behalf of the underprivileged. Left to his own wits, and blundering through the story, Toby first notifies the police who, it turns out, are led by a sergeant who plays tennis with Blake at the local health club. Realizing the futility of alerting authorities, Toby’s second attempt to free the prisoner, by brute force this time, also fails when Blake simply overpowers him. Left missing, his distraught mother, Liz, also starts looking for him and goes missing, leaving the reluctant Jay with a new resolve to find answers.
While I Came By is a story about struggle against the wealthy elite, it also provides an account of the possible effects of colonialism on social organization structures, interpersonal dynamics, and human bonds in the context of advanced industrial societies.[1] Out of this larger environment of hyper-efficiency, the pursuit of excellence, individualism, and unceasing wars, emerges the child of an ethnic elite family raised with resources and access to opportunity yet lacking any of the normal care and affection from his caregivers. It is important to note here that while Toby, Liz, and Jay are ‘good guys’ in this story and Blake is the ostensible ‘bad guy,’ Liz, Toby, and Blake all have several things in common. As members of the dominant ethnic group in Britain, they share a common thread of isolation, loneliness, and unearned advantage. The film weaves together these personal stories with broader themes related to the consequences of benefiting from colonial violence, theft, and war. For instance, Toby lives in his mother’s attic, doesn’t work, and waits for the release of his father’s inheritance while his relationship with his mother is strained, marked by sarcasm, and mutual disapproval. They spar over trivial things. In contrast, however, Jay lives with his partner, Naz, in a modest flat while both work and look forward to the arrival of their first child.
Blake, after eliminating two different people who discovered his secret, moves to a new, remote country home where he maintains his prisoner. Here, Jay finds him and confronts him asking about the whereabouts of Toby and Liz. In the ensuing struggle, viewers see what is perhaps the most telling scene in the film: an injured Jay repeatedly punching Blake and shouting the words “what did you do to them, Hector? Where are they?” while the camera slowly focuses on an image of Blake, as a child, all alone and smiling sadly, behind shattered glass. Afterward, and with a noticeable limp, Jay exits the scene while police lights illuminate the area. Police find Blake tied up next to the moniker, “I Came By.”
Like Intrusion and The Lie, I Came By considers the effects of war, colonialism, the rise of industrial society, and the ideals that come with these transformations on the lives of ordinary people, families, and children. Privilege, in this case, is paradoxical: it feeds and it poisons. To bridge the gap left by his fractured upbringing, Hector Blake seeks solace in unhealthy relationships and violent bonds.
The story of Jay, Liz, Toby, and Hector serves as a poignant reminder that unearned advantages can confer material advantages but do not shield their beneficiaries from the emotional and psychological costs that come from war and theft. Hector’s journey highlights the interplay between personal history, societal organizations structures, and the human need for connection and belonging, shedding light on the complexities of privilege in the context of colonialism’s legacy.
[1] I’m borrowing the phrasing “advanced industrial societies” from Marcuse’s One Dimensional Man.