The Violators

The auspicious film-making debut by terrifically talented writer/director Helen Walsh proved to be a remarkably assured affair, one of the more striking aspects of Walsh's remarkably dynamic indie feature is the searing authenticity of the performances from a gifted cast of largely unknown actors, their unfamiliarity a considerable blessing, adding a stark verisimilitude to 'The Violators' kitchen sink milieu, an unflinchingly bleak, heartfelt, energetically told tale of the not-so-quiet desperation of broken lives on a greatly deprived sinkhole estate in one of the more demonstratively rundown suburbs of Cheshire. Helen Walsh's surgical dissection of the devastating existential malaise fulminating within a decayed North England suburb is a witheringly earnest, frequently raw, emotionally complex, laudably unsentimental portrayal of damaged pretty teenager Shelly (Lauren McQueen), her increasingly fractured young life cruelly degraded by a grossly abusive father, this remarkably durable teenager's unlovely, unnurtured penurious half-life being a ceaselessly dispiriting descent into paltry, repetitive acts of petty theft, listless drug-taking, terminal truancy, and a profoundly isolating sense of disenfranchisement, Shelly's sole, tenuous grip on humanity being the love she feels for her younger, sweet-natured, BMX-riding brother Jerome (Callum King Chadwick), and her fractious friendship with the handsome, seemingly inviolable Soldier-boy-next-door Kieran (Liam Ainsworth). After an apparently random encounter with the eminently enigmatic middle-class misfit Rachel (Brogan Ellis) these two disparate, dysfunctional young lives become fatefully intertwined, the eerily beautiful Rachel forcefully acting as the singularly strange catalyst for a series of shocking, startlingly dramatic events that grievously culminate in a genuinely fascinating, emotionally engaging climax. 'The Violators' is mirror-bright, uncommonly vital independent cinema, with endearingly authentic performances, constrictor taut plotting, and an empathic director who clearly has a sympathy for the desperate plight of her all too real protagonists.

Shelly lives in the urban overspill of Cheshire in a sink hole estate with her brothers, one who is a bit of a lad and the younger who is confused and in need of some succour in life . Said life is not easy and money is hard to find and the estate where they live can be a cruel place. Then her paths cross with local loan shark and all round nasty type Mikey Finnegan and he is very much taken by the fifteen year old.

She also happens upon Rachel who comes from the other side of the tracks and shows a remarkable interest in the young girl. However everyone seems to have hidden agendas and some, though, are not so well hidden and before long the masks of contrivance slip.

Now this is the directorial debut from Helen Walsh who also wrote this and I think she has made a film that she can very much be proud of. The direction is great the actors all do a commendable job and the camera angles and framed shots show that a lot of thought has gone into this and the results are obvious. This is an off beat story in an unusual part of the country and it manages to be intriguing, compelling, original and very easy to recommend.

Bleak, northern and touching, Helen Walsh's directorial debut works because it's a story of making do when the odds are stacked against you. Shelly, played superbly by Lauren McQueen is objectified sexually by the characters and the camera, and it really works as we know that everyone is after exploiting her.The cast of this film are all excellent, Brogan Ellis, Liam Ainsworth, Stephen Lord and the supporting cast all deliver in an understated way. It's a slow burner, but paced just right as it steers us towards a taught climax. The acting is naturalistic and believable. The younger cast members, in my opinion are all going to go onto great things and their performances in this lovely film are handled well by the director.

I was fascinated to see how Helen Walsh would navigate the transition from novelist to auteur, and was not surprised by the poetic and lyrical film she has created. Make no mistake, The Violators is raw; its subject matter, its (very) young and precociously talented cast, its desolate locations and its sometimes intrusive, sometimes unsettling, always arresting hand-held shooting style is all rough, brutal and right in your face (much like Walsh's novels.) Yet, just as in novels like Brass and Once Upon A Time In England, Walsh finds the humanity amid the horror; she finds the beauty in everyday, ugly tableaux. The crude story of The Violators sees Shelly, the young, unwittingly beautiful head of a dysfunctional family having to use all her street wiles and nous to keep her little step- brother safe from their soon-to-be-released father - an abusive monster. In planning a safe haven, Shelly falls under the sinister gaze of two more predators - one of them not much older than herself. She has to think on her feet and try to work out who - if anyone - can be trusted on their godforsaken estate; yet there are moments of purity and childlike innocence amid all the squalor and hardship. If you have read Helen Walsh's novels you'll know that she doesn't pull any punches. Yet The Violators is visually stunning and unexpectedly beautiful, too, with its streaky pink skies and silver dockland vistas. Walsh has coaxed definitive performances from future stars Lauren McQueen, Callum King Chadwick and Brogan Ellis and, along with writer/directors like Clio Barnard and Carol Morley is surely a rising star herself. Another Northern Classic!

The copy and paste production of yet another damp and depressing drama that sticks religiously to the same old worn out story of poverty and sorrow. The painfully slow pace. The lack of any highlights. The unimaginative dialogue.

The sad fact is that you will sit through this hoping it goes somewhere new and intelligent, just to realise that it has nothing to say. To say the end was an anti-climax would be a huge understatement.

But the two actresses did have something about them. Their casting being the single positive thing. It is just a pity that there was nothing here for them to show off their talents.

So just add this to the big pile of 'indie' disappointments that do nothing but depress the hell out of you. Not recommended.