[3] A cult film of the Cool Cymru era of arts in Wales, it stars John Simm, Lorraine Pilkington, Shaun Parkes, Danny Dyer, and Nicola Reynolds.
The plot revolves around five twenty-something friends and their wider work and social circle,[3] the latter devotees of the club scene, taking place over the course of a drug-fuelled weekend in Cardiff, Wales.
[1] In the first 25 minutes, Lee, the 17-year-old brother of central character Nina, enthuses "I am about to be part of the chemical generation" and lists, using the slang of the period, a series of drugs that he might use later that night.
Moff, the newest member of the group having met Jip at a warehouse party after moving from London to Cardiff, is an unemployed slacker who works as a small-time dealer, despite his father being a senior policeman.
They go to pubs and clubs on Friday, taking along Nina's 17-year-old brother Lee whose waning enthusiasm for his first drugs experience is played out in a debate between Jip and a doctor.
Later, as expected by the group, "what goes up must come down" sets in as the effects of their drug use begin to hit home leaving them coping with feelings of anxiety and paranoia.
The public house during the Friday night scene was shot at the Firedrake & Firkin Pub, 39–41 Salisbury Road, Cathays, Cardiff.
Nina has similar misgivings about her job at a fast-food restaurant where all the employees are shown bodypopping robotically and she quits her work following sexual harassment.
[1] All the characters identify strongly with the 1990s counter-culture: all are drug users to a greater or lesser extent; Jip idolises Bill Hicks; Koop dreams of being a DJ; Moff's bedroom is festooned with anti-establishment posters.
These include Armand Van Helden, C. J. Bolland, Fatboy Slim, Jacknife Lee, Pete Heller, Ferry Corsten, Carl Cox, Dillinja, Felix Da Housecat, Orbital, Aphrodite, Death in Vegas, Primal Scream, Liquid Child, Underworld, Age of Love, Energy 52, Brainbug and Lucid.
The version of the film released in the United States was heavily edited to remove certain British cultural references and terminology that it was presumably felt American audiences would be unable to identify with or understand.
Other material was simply cut, including Lulu dumping her boyfriend; most of Koop's conversation with his father in the psychiatric hospital; and the 1991 "Summer of Love" flashback sequence.
On 21 October 2002, distributors VCI announced the DVD release of Human Traffic Remixed, promising a "modernised" soundtrack with new contemporary (2002) tracks, previously cut scenes, and "state-of-the-art CGI effects."
On 18 October The Guardian revealed that rather than being a "director's cut", it was the work of producer Allan Niblo, Kerrigan's tutor and "mentor" at film school.
Niblo removed from the titles all shots of the 1994 anti-Criminal Justice and Public Order Act demonstration and subsequent riot, thus eliminating the implicit political element of the original.
He also cut the more anti-royalist second verse of the spoof national anthem, and all references to Moff, played by Dyer, being a casual drug dealer.
Although shot on a budget of £340,000 and UK box office taking of £2.5 million, Niblo maintained that the film had not made a profit, stating: "the investment is still unrecouped."
John Simm was highly critical of the new release, describing it as "cynical exploitation" and complained of Niblo's attempts to get him to appear in a sequel when he had only been paid a nominal fee for the first film.