Un niño culpable

One of those dramas where you feel that rating it good and saying what you liked about it makes you feel inappropriate.

For such production and the story it's based on, there is no other way to do it best than make it as raw as could be. Everything seems so trivial - I mean cast, dialogues, scenes, yet it is the whole clue - to make you feel that such tragedy can happen any time. Emotional impact is clearly based on viewer's sensitivity and it got me completely. The only thing I was missing was just few closing conslusions, that human extreme emotions are way above justice being served basing mostly on words and other people's points of view. Nobody can even imagine how would he act while being in other's shoes, because person who judges, and exact same person who would be put in the same situation, are actually two totally different people.

Gripping look at the justice system in England and Wales

This docudrama is certainly inspired by dramas made by Ken Loach for the BBC back in the 1960s.

Whereas Loach even now continues to look at the flawed social welfare system. Director Nick Holt places the spotlight in Britain's justice system and how it deals with child offenders.

In England and Wales, children as young as 10 can be tried for murder and treated as if they were adults in an adult court. It is one of the lowest ages of criminal responsibility and has attracted criticism from the United Nations for breaching the Rights of a child.

Based on true events. 12 year old Ray (Billy Barratt) along with his older brother, Nathan who is 23 years of age are accused of murdering their stepfather in a frenzied knife attack.

The stepfather was a violent brute. The viewer see the events that led to killing as well as the trial.

The film is a troubling polemic. Ray has been let down by social workers as well as his mother. The judge at the trial has lifted reporting restrictions. The judge does not seem sympathetic that one of the accused is a young child. The prosecuting barrister takes little heed of the age of the person he is cross examining. It might not be common or required but I have actually seen warnings given to lawyers in the civil courts when they cross examine children and told to be careful of their conduct.

Ray is sensitively portrayed by 12 year old Billy Barratt. Holt wants to highlight the plight of children accused of serious crimes. I guess some older viewers might be less sympathetic to the issues raised. They would be aware of the Jamie Bulger murder in the early 1990s by two young children.

An American viewer here. I didn't know much about the "crown" system and how children this young could be tried as adults in the UK. I had read that the lead actor playing Ray, Billy Barratt, won an International Emmy for Best Actor for this role and I figured that they didn't give those out to just anyone. I'd say that he earned it.

It was heartbreaking throughout. You can tell he was doing more than repeating learned lines. There seemed to be a building tension of Ray being overwhelmed from not knowing what was going to happen next and being separated from his brother. A few scenes broke me for a bit. I don't know how much of this was fictionalized and how much really happened. It made me wonder if the actor needed a few therapy sessions afterwards.

Made for TV films in my country are usually terrible, so it is indeed the only one I'd recommend.

This is not an easy watch but it is well worth the effort. I caught it by chance, in BBC IPlayer. Billy Barrett is already a terrific young actor, and rightly steals the limelight from the more experienced cast. A terrific BBC production.