Keswick Film Festival

Synopsis

Based on the novel by Peter Jinks, Hallam Foe centres on a teenage boy who is still grieving for his dead mother who committed suicide a few years earlier. Hallam (Jamie Bell), an eccentric loner who spies on people whilst wearing a dress and war paint, lives a feral life hiding out on his family's estate in the Highlands. A confrontation with his stepmother drives him to a new life in Edinburgh, where his actions become even more bizarre.

Hallam Foe has an amazing combination of moods, notably of foreboding and comedy, and there's a lightness and exuberance that makes you hope beyond reason that things will turn out for Hallam.

Jamie Bell switches with aplomb between boyish charm and gaunt edginess in his first British role since Billy Elliott, whilst David Mackenzie underlines his rising reputation in world.