Title: Sweet Sixteen
Duration: 106 mins (full feature) 3 mins 19 seconds (our clip)
Director: Ken Loach
Production: Sixteen Films
WARNING - this clip contains the strongest language - if you would like to show this in your classroom we recommend that you write to parents first
Liam's mum, Jean, is in prison but is due to be released in time for his 16th birthday. This time Liam is determined that things will be different. He dreams of a family life he's never had, which means creating a safe haven beyond the reach of wasters like Jean's boyfriend Stan and his own mean-spirited grandfather.
But first he's got to raise the cash - no mean feat for a skint teenager. It's not long before Liam and his pals' crazy schemes lead them into all sorts of trouble. Finding himself dangerously out of his depth, Liam knows he should walk away. Only this time, he just can't let go.
While a filmmaker like Lars Von Trier subjects his characters to an uncompromisingly puritanical moral scheme, Loach and team allow the viewer to appreciate the events in their contingency. The characters' actions are decided as a reaction to a circumstance, rather than from a learned morality. The people of Sweet Sixteen are not positioned on a scale of good and evil, which does not exist in the film's conception, but are continually reformed by circumstance, opportunity (or lack of it), and their relationships - Peter Crowe brightlightsfilm.com
Director: Ken Loach
Cinematography: Barry Ackroyd
Screenplay: Paul Laverty
Music: George Fenton
Film Editor: Jonathan Morris
Set Designer: Martin Johnson
Michelle Abercromby - Suzanne
Martin Compston - Liam
Annmarie Fulton - Chantelle
William Ruane - Pinball