The Selfish Giant

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.

Quote - "In order to see similar living conditions we don't need to leave the European Union. Therefore, it is questionable why would The Selfish Giant have more artistic merit than a docudrama about immigrants in France, jobless Spaniards, rural Poland, Gypsies in Romania or any other environment "reformed" towards free market and liberal capitalism." Quite, and the question that crossed my mind as I left the cinema last night was why make this film? In no way do I question the portrayal, the acting the directing, etc - I give it 8/10, but I wonder why this particular movie? Ken Loach has made many similar movies (better, in my opinion) on the topic, gritty North Of England atmosphere and scenery has a long history going back to Alan Sillitoe, and many other authors. If it is a message - great, but will it impact - no, not as an art film. As I said 8/10 for everything else. I'll try to have a look at the previous work Arbor (same name - same subject??) as I think the team have a future. Barry, France

Every once and awhile a movie comes along and rattles your core. It doesn't use graphics or fantasia - just raw human grit. It picks you up gently, rising you ever higher. You peer from this mountainous peak of mortal avidity as you gaze upon the truth that which it shows with such grotesque purity. You then realize you're helpless at such a height - as if suddenly finding yourself uncomfortably aware of the precarious position you're in as your heart, your mind, and your soul yields to its every whim; forcing you to confront the harsh reality that is life. In the midst of the aftermath, you emerge anew, humbled, adapted - for one more jaunt into the fray. This my friends, is one of those movies.

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.

In the Giant's garden in Oscar Wilde's children's story The Selfish Giant, it is always winter. Having built a wall to keep children from playing in his garden, there are no longer any peach trees, flowers, or birds, only perpetual hail and snow. Spring has forgotten this garden as it also seems to have forgotten the industrial town of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England, the setting for Clio Barnard's authentic and visceral The Selfish Giant. Nominated for a BAFTA award for Best British Film of 2013, The Selfish Giant is in the tradition of Ken Loach, Shane Meadows and others, films of social realism that show the world there is more to merry old England than Stratford-on-Avon and Westminster Abbey. Though the film is about economic and social dysfunction, it is not all grim. Even in the metallic gray of the rotting town as captured by cinematographer Mike Eley, scenes of horses grazing in a tranquil field, oblivious to the surrounding train tracks and power lines, add a touch of timeless beauty. The real standout, however, are the remarkably convincing performances of Arbor (Conner Chapman) and Swifty (Shaun Thomas), 13-year-old best friends whose connection is born out of their desperate need for affection. Arbor, a pint-sized, hyperactive, sharp-tongued ADHD sufferer, lives with his mother (Rebecca Manley) and older brother (Elliott Tittensor) who sells his A.D.H.D. medication to pay off his drug debts. His father is nowhere to be seen. "They sleep on the living room sofas but are better off than Swifty who lives with his eight siblings in a home lacking in the means to support them. Swifty's mother played by Siobhan Finneran, is caring, though she is intimidated by her overbearing husband (Steve Evets) who supports the family by renting furniture from discount stores and selling them for cash at inflated prices." Struggling to keep his aggressive behavior in check, Arbor relies on the heavy-set Swifty, a kinder gentler soul with a love for horses to calm him down. Banned from school as a result of fighting to defend themselves against bullies, the boys use a horse and cart to scavenge scrap metal, pots and pans, as well as copper cabling from telecom, railway, and power utilities. To earn money to help support their families, they sell the scrap to an exploitative but fatherly local junk dealer (Sean Gilder), incongruously called Kitten but given to bursts of anger. In one of the visual highlights of the film, an illegal harness drag race is run on a major highway with serious money at stake. Recognizing Swifty's way with horses, Kitten offers to let him ride one of his horses in the next race. Feeling his friend drifting away from him, Arbor concocts a potentially lucrative plan to steal or collect electrical power cables, but the adventure leads to unforeseen consequences. Much of the dialogue without subtitles is indecipherable due to the heavy Yorkshire accents, but consists mostly of non-stop swearing anyway. What does come through loud and clear, however, without the need for subtitles is the closeness of the boys' friendship. Although they have different temperaments, they are connected by a struggle for survival and a drive to preserve whatever joy is left in their childhood. There are definitely economic and political overtones in The Selfish Giant, yet it is not about politics or even selfishness, in spite of the title. It is a film with a human element at its core and we care about the characters as Barnard obviously does as well. According to the director, the film "is about what we have lost…and what we need to value and hold on to." It is also a film about the resilience of two boys determined to avoid becoming objects like the discarded scrap they collect.

One of the commentators has hit the nail on the head when they called this movie depressing. It's ostensibly based on an Oscar Wilde story, although given that the source material is a fairy tale for children, the similarities are so few that you can't really work out the connection. Instead this is a working class tale of petty crime and even pettier characters. The main characters are a couple of tearaway kids who decide to make a living by stealing scrap metal and selling it to the local dealer. The problem with this film is that the entire cast is unsympathetic, and the dialogue is poorly written, substituting expletives for insight. I don't mind low budget films with depressing backdrops - I really enjoyed the Irish tragi-comedy ADAM & PAUL, for example - but this really takes the biscuit, especially when you have no real reason to watch. And that ending is so heavily signposted throughout that it doesn't come as a surprise at all.

The Selfish Giants portrays the lives of people who are otherwise airbrushed from the picture of contemporary society. They do pop up in the media once in a while but are soon removed by more appealing images, such as royal wedding or London Olympics. As if afterwards everyone in the UK reverts back to five o'clock tea and watching football games at a local pub. In order to see similar living conditions we don't need to leave the European Union. Therefore, it is questionable why would The Selfish Giant have more artistic merit than a docudrama about immigrants in France, jobless Spaniards, rural Poland, Gypsies in Romania or any other environment "reformed" towards free market and liberal capitalism. Moreover, the UK is the country which basically invented capitalism, yet leaves a part of its population living in early 20th century conditions. Meanwhile London bankers keep churning billions and the media tries to convince us that such contrasts are typical for the Third World. And this is more complex question than it seems. The stories like The Selfish Giant should be on front pages, not in art-house movies.

The Selfish Giant shows basically how capitalism works: not by making an academic movie with statistical figures, but by telling the highly capturing dramatic story of two teenagers in an English community who need to collect scrap to make ends meet. They are no longer motivated in studying, because the bills need to be payed by the end of the month. At school they are expelled because of their frustrated behavior. Their family is in ruin due to the stress caused by not earning enough money. In their quest for scrap they see how the best thief's also gain the most money. So eventually they turn to criminal behavior. Not by choice, but by necessity. Making money becomes separated from doing 'the right thing' to do. The director does a good job not telling this as a straight forward moral tale, nor using sentimental 'tricks', nor trying to pretend that all ends well. But telling it as an illustration on a human level in an ordinary community where the downside of our economic model is not theory but reality.

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...

source: The Selfish Giant