Ratcatcher

Set in a Glasgow tenement block in the 1970s, against a backdrop of rubbish accumulating during a dustbinmen’s strike, the film follows the twelve year old James Gillespie (William Eadie) as tragedy causes him to withdraw from his family. He is drawn to the fetid canal where he creates a world of his own. He finds an awkward tenderness with Margaret Anne (Leanne Mullen), a vulnerable 14 year old expressing a need for love in all the wrong ways, and befriends Kenny (John Miller), who possesses an unusual innocence in spite of the harsh surroundings. (Independent Cinema Office)