Ratcatcher

Glasgow in the mid-seventies: the family of James Gillespie (12) lives in a difficult area. They are waiting for the council to send them to a better district. No one knows that James has been through something awful that slowly but surely alienates him from his family. He lives in a world of his own and spends much of his time around a nearby canal, where the rubbish is piling up after a lengthy strike by the refuse collectors. Here he meets Margaret Anne (14), who finds it difficult to express her need for love and does so clumsily. She makes friends with Kenny, a simple soul who has retained an uncommon innocence in these hard and indifferent surroundings. Lynne Ramsay was born and bred in Glasgow. She has wielded camera for other film-makers on several occasions before in less than three years making three short films (Rotterdam screened Kill the Day in 1997), that were very well received by press and audiences. Ratcatcher, her feature début, was premièred very successfully last year at the Cannes festival and was praised for the uncompromising documentary way it portrayed a poor community in Scotland. Ratcatcher is a powerful portrait of a boy who continues to fight to flee a world of alienation and despair against all odds.