The Selfish Giant (2013)

I saw this film at the Leiden film festival (LIFF) 2013. Two main characters Arbor (13 years old) and Swifty (15 years old), both played by unexperienced actors, make this movie rise above the story that in itself is not that spectacular, though the authors certainly intended it as social commentary. The working class environment, the poor neighborhood, the shady business where these two boys get themselves involved in, many people living together in small houses, and so on, it all provides for the perfect context to explain why these people do what they do. The only silver lining in this story is that Swifty proves to Kitten that he has his way with horses, and thus is allowed to prepare his best horse for the races. The remainder is depressing all over, but nevertheless a must-see, if only to observe a way of living that is insufficiently covered in newspapers and magazines.

Fmovies: Arbor lives on the fringes of society, barely present as his school, drifting in and out of his home, and already embroiled in petty crime before reaching his teens. He has ambitions in scrap which brings him into the sphere of Kitten, a man whose personality is fiercely at odds with his moniker.

Barnard's Ken Loach and Andrea Arnold influences are all too evident. The triumphs are the performances from the child actors, Connor Chapman all raw energy as the feral Arbor, and Shaun Thomas as vulnerable Swifty give genuinely moving performances. Unfortunately, all this takes second stage to an unrelentingly shouty, snarly, foul-mouthed depiction of the underclass. The characters are probably not based on Barnard's lived experience: depressingly, they seem to owe more to the lurid pages of The Daily Mail. Three women appear in the story - Arbor's mother, Swifty's mother and Kitten's wife, and seem to blend into each other in their put-upon world-weariness. The men are similarly indistinguishable in their constant provocations. There is no tenderness, no quiet affection, to break this monotony of misery. This is problematic because when Kitten takes the film's climactic act upon himself, it is a character trait completely inauthentic to everything we have seen of this man beforehand.

Lynne Ramsay in 'Ratcatcher' and Paddy Considine in 'Tyrannosaur' show there is nuanced storytelling to be mined in Broken Britain. This film tries too hard to wear Ken Loach's clothes, but lacks the compassion of a 'Kes'. Disingenuous and unconvincing.

The two leads, as unknowns, are superb, as are all the child actors in this.

Of the adults it is clearly led by the performance of the three lead female actors (four: I should include the school receptionist). But this film has such an almost documentary feel about it you can forgive any of the acting that may feel a little strained or unnatural (perhaps because of a lacking in the script?).

There are some wonderfully emotionally funny scenes equally matched by ones of sadness. People often use words such as grim, depressing or bleak. But this is Britain as it is; which is about looking for the humour and humanity beyond the circumstance of living. If you haven't been in Britain, then you might be forgiven, if you live here then maybe you have been sheltered: This is really how life can be; but it is far more a story about a boy's journey to manhood.

As a statement on modern society then it speaks volumes to say that nothing is different now as from when it's 60's counterpart Kes was made, or for that matter in anytime in our history.

But for me it won on all levels for it's such strong sense of humanity, on Arbor's journey of discovery, which was lacking, somewhat, in Kes.

The Selfish Giant fmovies. Based loosely on the Oscar Wilde story, THE SELFISH GIANT is set in contemporary Bradford, north England, and focuses on the lives of two boys, both of whom are misfits. Arbor (Conner Chapman) cannot fit in to high school life, and prefers to spend his time collecting scrap metal to help his impoverished family. His friend Swifty (Shaun Thomas) is emotionally softer, but proves brilliant at dealing with the prize horse of local dealer Kitten (Sean Gilder). With its washed-out colors and lengthy shots focusing on a grim post-industrial landscape, Clio Barnard's film looks at life on the margins, where families quite literally have to sell everything in order to survive. Despite their hardships, Arbor and Swifty forge a close friendship - so close, in fact, that we are both shocked and moved when tragedy strikes at the end of the film. THE SELFISH GIANT has strong links to Ken Loach's KES in its portrayal of contemporary working-class culture. The dialog is harsh and uncompromising, while the two central performances are memorable. There are certain rough edges - Gilder's Kitten comes across as rather two-dimensional, while his wife Mary (Lorraine Ashbourne) is almost too good to be true - but the film is definitely worth watching more than once.

I have to confess I have a 'soft spot' for realist British drama and any film featuring scrapyards and neglected locations nearly always gets a high rating for me.

Having seen Clio Barnard's previous film 'The Arbor' a couple of years back, I was curious to see her next feature and it's well worth the price of admission. Her style and subject matter here remind me of Andrea Arnold's 'Fish Tank' and also a little of Rufus Norris's dysfunctional family in 'Broken', both of which were high on my score sheet.

The two young leads are outstanding, even if their strong northern accents are sometimes hard to follow for me, a southerner, and the portrayal of exclusion, its consequences and repercussions is handled brilliantly by the film makers as you are immersed in their world for what feels far longer than the 90 minutes running time.

See it and appreciate that British drama is alive and kicking. I look forward to her next project.

A story of dependence, damage and desperation, told with grit and grimy frankness. It's also a portrait of friendship born of need and emptiness, on the road to nowhere. The tone of documentary accuracy makes the film even darker.

Much of the movie is hard to bear, yet it never drags, thanks to the momentum that writer and director Clio Barnard finds in the fable, and, above all, to the energy that she unleashes in her young leads, Conner Chapman and Shaun Thomas.

The first great fiction film to be released in 2014, Clio Barnard's second feature, "The Selfish Giant," is breathtakingly assured, ruggedly beautiful, moving and justifiably tragic.