Some people need to be taught a lesson.

In the urban wastelands of 1970s Glasgow, 12-year-old John McGill is an outlier. Quiet, studious and uncommonly intelligent, he exists in contrast to his alcoholic, abusive father, gang leader brother and repressed, ineffectual mother. But as he enters high school and the unwanted adolescence that comes with it, the grim realities of his working class background begin to press ever more violently against his childhood ambition.

Eight years on from The Magdalene Sisters, writer-director Peter Mullan's searing portrait of Irish Catholic cruelty, Neds (Non- Educated DelinquentS) presents another uncompromising yet humane vision of the forgotten poor. Personally inflected and tragic in tone - yet still sparked with moments of remarkable humour - Neds sets Mullan up alongside Ken Loach as one of the premier voices of the UK working class.

D/S Peter Mullan P Olivier Delbosc, Alain de la Mata, Marc Missonnier Dist Transmission Films TD 35mm/2010