Keswick Film Festival

Synopsis

Andrea Arnold goes from strength to strength in this, her second feature (following Red Road), in which she develops her very personal style of story-telling and coaxes extraordinary performances from her leading actors. An entirely credible portrait of the emotional and sexual development of a teenage girl coping with her tough life on a Thames Estuary estate, it’s a treatment which has been described as Ken Loachian realism from the female viewpoint. Arnold’s sensitive, imaginative and intimate portrayal of the girl, her family and Mum’s new boyfriend is as successful as her depiction of the wider world in which Mia (Katie Jarvis) lives.

Winner of the Jury Prize, Cannes 2009.