It is not every day a blockbuster movie tipped for BAFTA and Oscar nominations is shot in your hometown.

So when Bird, which was filmed across Gravesend, Northfleet, Bean and Leysdown, hit the cinemas, I decided to buy a ticket and see where I grew up on the big screen.

Crews descended on various locations across the county last summer shooting scenes for Academy Award-winning and Dartford-born director Andrea Arnold’s latest picture.

In June, BAFTA award-winning actor Barry Keoghan was spotted racing up and down New Road and King Street in Gravesend town centre on an electric scooter.

Days later, residents of Page Close, in Bean, watched people running through alleyways and a police car racing up and down their road, as they shot scenes late at night.

Elsewhere, film crews shot scenes at The Hive housing estate, in Northfleet, which featured prominently and is one of the main locations eagle-eyed viewers would recognise in the cinema.

As someone who grew up in Gravesham and still lives in the borough I was looking forward to seeing the town feature so heavily in the highly-acclaimed production.

However, I was quickly warned by others who had already seen it that it did not exactly paint the area in the best light.

Arnold’s feature-length feral drama follows single dad named Bug (played by Saltburn and Dunkirk star Barry Keoghan), who lives in a squat in Gravesend, and his 12-year-old daughter, Bailey, (played by newcomer Nykiya Adams), who looks for adventure elsewhere.

Alongside them is Bird (played by German actor Franz Rogowski) who hops, skips, and jumps his way into town – and into the life of young Bailey.

The film follows Bailey the week she finds out her dad and his new girlfriend are planning to get married in a few days and as she tries to navigate growing up and where she belongs in her family.

The gritty drama does not shy away from the more taboo storylines with drugs, teenage pregnancy, gangs, violence and abusive relationships making up large parts of the movie.

I had never seen Arnold’s work before but after some research, I found she often sets her work in housing and council estates and tends to focus on themes of deprivation and poverty.

I agree that it did not show the area in the best of light.

However, I think it was a realistic example of some of the high levels of deprivation faced in every town up and down the country and was not a reflection solely on Gravesend.

Despite the more serious storylines portrayed, there are scenes which make you laugh out loud.

This includes Keoghan’s character singing Coldplay’s Yellow to make a toad release a hallucinogenic drug, and some that warp reality with magical elements.

Although for a lot of the movie I was trying to figure out the filming locations, I enjoyed it and felt it showed the strength of family and community and how there is always hope for a better future.

In May, Bird had its world premiere at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, in France, where it received a seven-minute standing ovation.

Writer-director Arnold also received the Prix de la Citoyenneté prize which is given to the feature that best shows humanism.