Neds

The fine British character actor Peter Mullan (Trainspotting, The Claim, TV's Red Riding trilogy) consolidates his reputation as a filmmaker of distinction with his new directorial project Neds: an ambitious, edgy, but well-judged exploration of social dysfunction and teenage alienation. 

Written by Mullan - who is also represented at MIFF as an actor in Tyrannosaur, a dark drama made by another actor-turned-director Paddy Considine - Neds portrays the Scottish child John's growth into violence and delinquency, in which he associates himself as a Ned (a term which carries more weight in the UK than it does elsewhere, standing for Non-educated Delinquent).

As an actor, Mullan seems drawn to films and storytellers with socially conscious concerns, playing addicts, fascists and corrupt leaders for edgy auteurs like Danny Boyle, Michael Winterbottom, Alfonso Cuaron and Ken Loach (who was responsible for Mullan's breakthroughs Riff Raff and My Name is Joe).

Neds is Mullan's first film since The Magdalene Sisters, which earned the Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion in 2002. That film was a powerful experience, if a little draining, given the director's sometimes Mel Gibson-esque capacity for drama (in Magdalene, an angry Mullan lambasted the hypocrisy and corruption of Catholic nuns that victimized young women in the mid '60s). Neds, however, is a much more complete, well-realized work.

Not only is the film strikingly directed - throbbing with a simmering intensity in Mullan's impressive compositions - but it also highlights an expansion in the director's style. Neds is certainly more cerebral than the earlier film. As a boy, John is told, "Your dreams are going to come true, you know." However, as John grows from a child (played by Greg Forrest) into a troubled teenager (Connor McCarron) in '70s Glasgow, Mullan depicts John's development with increasing surrealism and expressionism.   

Initially, the film seems close to Loach-like social realism: certainly, the thick, authentic accents are sometimes difficult to understand (hence Neds is presented with English subtitles). In his and cinematographer Roman Osin's photography, the filmmakers make smaller, subtler choices: wide-angle lenses increase tension in fight scenes by reducing the sense of space between foreground and background in the frame whilst a change in light beautifully signals a shift in time for John into adolescence.

Yet, Mullan's choices become increasingly lurid and abstract. In particular, Jazz Age musical choices (like Irving Berlin's 'Cheek to Cheek') increase the sense of contrast between reality and John's deranged psychology. In these stages, Neds nods towards the tragedy of the divided self. John yearns for acceptance and respect from his friends, but he also wishes for escape from his lower class. John's inability to reconcile this conflict - between sensitivity and social acceptance - eventually triggers delinquency and inevitable violence.

Since its UK release in January, Neds has been acclaimed for its ambiguity (certainly, the final shot offers a number of interpretations about John and his future). Whether or not you appreciate Mullan's ambiguity, it is difficult to deny the power and intelligence of Neds.