The Selfish Giant

This film is stunning - a visually powerful glimpse into a savage, precarious world, with humour and tenderness.

It can't just be reduced to a political diatribe, although the post-industrial setting is bleak and the poverty grinding. Mainly it's the story of a young lad's struggle towards adulthood, ahead of his time and in tough circumstances, as he learns the hard way what it is to be a grown-up.

The echoes of 'Kes' are obvious, but with the destruction of that old industrial world the characters too are ambiguous and troubled. Arbor is a complex mix of ruthlessness, cheekiness and wit. We see his character develop from being a cocky little tawt to something altogether more complicated and touching...

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.

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.

It is just over a decade ago that by chance I watched Clio Barnard's first short film Lambeth Marsh; by intention or by chance since then I have seen her other works although I was a little late coming to The Selfish Giant. Although I had some problems with her early shorts, her last film and previous short both were very strong and I felt sure she could continue in that vein. As a story teller she delivers really well here with a film that is savaging depressing but yet realistic and convincing. The plot sees two boys, the fast-talking Arbor and the slower but kinder Swifty; the two are friends and have in common that their home lives are a mess with chaos and poverty being common themes. Expelled from school for yet another fight, Arbor leads the two to get into the market for recovered tat – with stolen copper cabling being a particularly lucrative line of business. As they deal with scrap merchant Kitten, Arbor aspires to his money while Swifty shows a natural aptitude towards Diesel, the yard horse that Kitten also races.

The basic story here doesn't exactly rip along and although it does have some bigger moments and revelations, it is very much about putting us into this world and letting us experience it. This is very much in the traditional mould of British kitchen-sink drama, although in this film if there was a traditional kitchen sink, no doubt Arbor would have had it down the tatters with half a chance. This world is one of few options where everyone is out for themselves and characters stripping metal like Bubs in The Wire, although here it is to just pay the installments for a sofa (which has already been sold on to get cash). The story makes this world convincing and depressing although at the same time it does not allow us to be turned off by the characters. This is quite the feat because in the real world the sight of Arbor and Swifty coming would have you keeping an eye on your car and assuming the worst till they are gone. It is to the film's credit that here we do not dislike them although we hate their circumstance. The impact of poverty and their "survival" home life is brutally portrayed and we do care for these ratty broken characters throughout the film.

The downside of the approach of the film is that I didn't think that we got a particularly strong ending so much as just let life go on, such as it is; other than this though the film is as engaging as it is bleak. The greatest part of the film is that the two child actors are great. I hope Chapman is not like this in real life but he utterly convinces as a child brought up in the world of swearing impatience and need. He grabs the attention but Thomas is equally good as a more sensitive boy who frankly isn't cut out for this place and he brings out his tiredness mostly as well as lighting up well whenever kindness is his to give or interest in him is expressed. The adult supporting cast are roundly good too, but these two are the whole film. Barnard's camera mixes distant still shots through fog and more a mobile camera moving in and around the characters in a way that puts us right in the middle of the action.

It is a very accomplished film but please don't make the mistake of assuming that because it is praised that it must be a "good" watch, because it is really a very difficult one. The bleakness and realism of this world is relentless and the nature of telling puts us right in the middle of it while the fine performances make us feel for the characters while hating their situation. It is a very tough piece of British social realism, but it is still a very well made film with it.