"Pure opens with the shocking scene of Paul, a 10 year old boy, bringing his mother (Molly Parker, Marion Bridge, in MIFF this year) breakfast in bed. On the tray is a cup of tea, a syringe and her heroin, which in his innocence he thinks is her medicine. If ever there was film with its heart in the right place, deviating not so much as a millimetre in any direction, it's this earnestly acted piece from director Gill MacKinnon (Small Faces. MIFF 1996). Paul has to look after his pathetically drug-addict mother in a tough East London council estate. The resourceful lad suffers the break-up of family, tries to help Mum take a cold-turkey cure, and is pressured by the police to help nail Lenny, the neighbourhood pimp and drug dealer who is her abusive lover. It's got talented cast, each doing an impeccably honest job."—The Guardian

Pure features Australian David Wenham (The Bank, MIFF 2001) as the venomous dealer Lenny. A cold and manipulative parasite, his greed and need to keep a stable of regular clients doped and vulnerable is chilling. His sideline in neighbourhood prostitution adds an additional level of pathos to the tragedy.