This London drama is directed with absolute confidence by first-timers Darragh Carey and Bertrand Desrochers, hitting the ground running with a girl-meets-boy story set in Brixton. It begins with a chaotic rush of teenage energy and hormones when white middle-class teenager Leah (Lily Newmark) gets together with Benji (Ola Orebiyi), who is black and from a low-income family. Before they meet, budding video artist Leah secretly follows Benji around Brixton, voyeuristically filming him handing out flyers for his mum’s nail bar and mucking about with his mates. Her footage gives us a portrait of Benji as an intriguing mix of charisma and shyness – with an innate kindness that makes the tragedy coming his way painful to watch.

Together as a couple, Leah and Benji document their world: getting wasted at parties and playing video games. Leah’s aunt Tilda (nicely played by Jaime Winstone) runs a gallery for emerging artists and promises Leah a show of the material. But what Tilda wants is “authentic” footage, which means only Benji in front of the camera. The result is an edit that presents him as a stereotype: smoking spliff, hood up, giving the finger to the camera. There’s a brilliant moment on opening night when Benji looks around, and sees that the arty folk who fill the gallery are in their comfort zone perceiving him like this. As he says bitterly to Leah, she’s the one with the expensive computer and media connections. She’s in charge of the narrative.

It’s here that A Brixton Tale starts to shuffle the deck of urban drama storylines. There’s a conflict with Leah’s ex that spirals out of control. When something awful happens it’s Leah, with her privilege and wealthy parents, who has all the levers at her disposal; her mistakes are fixable. It’s a film with some strong moments and impressive performances, especially from Orebiyi. But in the end it feels like social commentary overtakes the drama.

• A Brixton Tale is released on 17 September in cinemas.