The Selfish Giant

The Selfish Giant

MS12

Genre

Drama

Director

Clio Barnard

Run time

1h 33min

Cast

Conner Chapman, Shaun Thomas, Sean Gilder

“The Selfish Giant”, the fiction debut of filmmaker Clio Barnard (whose documentary “The Arbor” received much acclaim and showed at BNFF 2010) is a powerful and moving fable about friendship, greed and exploitation and likely to be compared with the compassionate drama of Ken Loach at his best.

The film follows 13-year-old Arbor (Conner Chapman) and his best friend Swifty (Shaun Thomas), who meet Kitten (Sean Gilder), a local scrap dealer – the ‘Selfish Giant’ of the title – and start collecting scrap for him using a horse and cart. Initially Arbor is a favourite of Kitten, who likes his drive, but when Swifty shows a natural gift for horses Kitten starts to favour him. With life getting tougher for Arbor he starts to feel increasingly alienated by Kitten and in a bid to emulate the man he admires he starts to become more and more greedy and exploitative. Soon tension builds between the two teens.

The tough atmosphere of the UK estates is impressively documented by Barnard, with the gentle but ominous hum of the electricity pylons adding a powerful sound effect to sit alongside the nicely shot vistas. The film is gently dramatic and impressively memorable, and confirms Clio Barnard as a talent to watch.

Mark Adams, Screen International / PÖFF

UK 2013

Genre

Drama

Director

Clio Barnard

Run time

1h 33min

Cast

Conner Chapman, Shaun Thomas, Sean Gilder

“The Selfish Giant”, the fiction debut of filmmaker Clio Barnard (whose documentary “The Arbor” received much acclaim and showed at BNFF 2010) is a powerful and moving fable about friendship, greed and exploitation and likely to be compared with the compassionate drama of Ken Loach at his best.

The film follows 13-year-old Arbor (Conner Chapman) and his best friend Swifty (Shaun Thomas), who meet Kitten (Sean Gilder), a local scrap dealer – the ‘Selfish Giant’ of the title – and start collecting scrap for him using a horse and cart. Initially Arbor is a favourite of Kitten, who likes his drive, but when Swifty shows a natural gift for horses Kitten starts to favour him. With life getting tougher for Arbor he starts to feel increasingly alienated by Kitten and in a bid to emulate the man he admires he starts to become more and more greedy and exploitative. Soon tension builds between the two teens.

The tough atmosphere of the UK estates is impressively documented by Barnard, with the gentle but ominous hum of the electricity pylons adding a powerful sound effect to sit alongside the nicely shot vistas. The film is gently dramatic and impressively memorable, and confirms Clio Barnard as a talent to watch.

Mark Adams, Screen International / PÖFF

UK 2013

Info

Rating

Under 12 Not Recommended

Production year

2013

Global distributor

-

Local distributor

Pimedate Ööde Filmifestival MTÜ

In cinema

11/18/2013