Filth is a 2013 British crime comedy-drama film written and directed by Jon S. Baird, based on Irvine Welsh's novel Filth. It was released in Scotland on 27 September 2013 and was released in the rest of Britain and Ireland on 4 October 2013. Bruce Robertson (James McAvoy) is a Detective Sergeant in Edinburgh; a scheming, manipulative, misanthropic man who spends his time indulging in drugs, alcohol, sexually abusive relationships, and "the games" – his euphemism for the myriad foul plots he hatches directed at workmates. Robertson also delights in systematically bullying and taking advantage of his mild mannered friend Clifford Blades (Eddie Marsan), a member of Robertson's masonic lodge whose wife he repeatedly prank calls and harasses as part of one of the games (transgressions for which he ultimately frames Blades himself). Robertson's main goal in life is to gain promotion to Detective Inspector, the path to which appears to open when he is assigned to oversee the investigation .. …