“Sadiq Khan and Boris Johnson need to go watch this,” says Joseph Kemp (not his real name), a youth worker from south London, of Blue Story, the film which sparked controversy this week after Vue and Showcase Cinemas pulled it following a mass brawl in Birmingham.

The move led to accusations of “institutional racism”, “negative bias” and “a systematic and targeted attack”.

Both cinema chains have since resumed screenings after the outcry.

Outside PeckhamPlex in south London, where the film is set, many leaving the 6.30pm viewing on Thursday, are – like Kemp – bemused by the decision to ban Blue Story, with the film drawing applause from cinema-goers.

“The film is a good insight to bring people who are from the area to relate to and also people who are not from the area who don’t really understand it. Lots of people have opinions from an outside view and a lot of surface level understanding of what goes on, so this is a big insight to show what it is like and how young people can get coerced into violence and crime,” he says.

Cinemagoers say the film – a story of two friends who get caught up in gangs from rival postcodes – is vitally important in depicting some of the issues that are affecting London. The number of teenagers stabbed to death in the capital has reached its highest level since 2008.

Kemp, who brought some of the young people he works with to see the show, says the move by Vue was “ridiculous”.

Tim Richards, the founder and chief executive of Vue International, has said the company “agonised” over the decision to pull the film, but had to prioritise the safety of staff and customers. Richards said he knew Blue Story was “an important movie” and that he had never wanted to withdraw it.

Amid all the controversy, focus has shifted away from the issues the film’s director, (AKA Rapman) shines a light on. Kemp says a lack of “education, resources and funding” are driving youth violence. He says the problem needs to be tackled in a holistic way, starting with communities, families and schools. “That is where the work starts … intervention needs to happen at an early stage, from primary school.”

One of the young people he works with, Cairo Arif, 19, says the film did a good job of showing “what was happening in the area”.

“I don’t think it glamorises violence. It does happen. There are people with knives and in gangs. But you don’t hear about it in the media, it is not being shown, so people seeing it for the first time, of course, will say it glamorises violence but it is actually going on.”

Another cinemagoer, Mohammed Muazu, 38, says he used to work with Rapman in a cinema. “They [Vue and Showcase] jumped the gun too quickly … they made a decision and did not even assess the film. For me, I am from this area and grew up here when this was all going on … the message [of the film] is positive.

“The message is: you are fighting for a postcode you don’t even own.”

He again highlights the main drivers of youth violence. “Austerity, a lack of youth funding. I have seen how times have changed from when the coalition came in and youth funding was cut in 2011. I worked in that sector too. In Southwark alone about 10 youth clubs were shut down – where do young people go after that? To the streets.”

Elsewhere in London, the topic of the film is also a focus. It’s late afternoon in a building in King’s Cross that houses Only Connect, a service helping young people and ex-offenders through music.

Tèsharn Dundas, 19, said a lot of people in his circle have been speaking about Vue’s decision to pull the film and then reinstate it.

“They wanted to go and see it and for some reason it was taken down [by Vue] … It’s stereotyping. They are thinking, there are young people with knives in here, Blue Story is on at the same time, so let’s put two and two together. They think they have been influenced by this story but that is not the case.”

He added that the film was “basically what happens on the roads”.

“It’s accurate, the fighting between school kids, between different schools. We went to school and we went through that … It doesn’t glamorise violence, it is what happens. You cannot glamorise something that happens.”

Deandre Holder, 23, agrees: “Everyone grew up differently in a sense … [but] we are putting out our story of what is happening today.

“I feel like the media is just using it to give youths a bad name but not every young person is like that or dresses the same. Sometimes they just need to ask the youths what is going on instead of painting us with a bad brush. People are not going to get anywhere if you keep doing that.”

Dundas relates it to what happened with grime music. A report into the UK music scene earlier this year found grime artists face discrimination by music venues, police and local authorities over unfounded fears of violence at their concerts.

“The government wanted to try to ban grime in the same way,” Dundas said. “They are stereotyping Rapman’s story and saying, ‘look, this is what you are making young people do’ in the same way they did with grime and drill music. They say it is influencing kids so they try to ban it. The reason why grime is produced and why Blue Story was produced is that it is real shit going on.”

For these young people, Onwubolu, is an inspiration and they see his treatment as reflective of the wider way young people are treated.

Ashley Darcy, also at Only Connect, said: “There are a million people like Rapman out there, but only selective ones are able to tell their story. I respect what he is doing as an artist and everything he represents but there are many people doing what he does but get overlooked.”

Dundas said: “He is putting out a story that represents young kids and gets shut down. That represents us lot trying to reach out to people and getting shut down.”

• This article was amended on 12 August 2022 to remove some personal information.