The Selfish Giant - Il gigante egoista

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.

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.

The Selfish Giant is an interesting watch-gritty, heartfelt, and beautifully shot, with powerful performances from its young leads. There's a rawness to it that feels authentic, and the friendship at its centre is touching in that bruised, kitchen-sink way. But as much as I wanted to be moved, something about it felt a bit... manipulative. Like it knew exactly how to push the poverty-porn buttons. It lingers on the hardship in a way that sometimes feels more exploitative than empathetic. I admired the craft, but I left it feeling more wrung out than enriched. Worth seeing, but not life-changing.

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.