Ratcatcher

Set in and around a Glasgow tenement block during a dustman's strike in the mid-'70s, Ramsay's astonishingly assured feature debut centres on a 12-year-old (Eadie, excellent) who, haunted by the (secret) role he played in a pal's accidental death by drowning, gradually retreats into a private world of solitude, strange friendships and consoling dreams of a new home for his family. That's about it, story-wise, but Ramsay's bold visual sense, droll wit and tender but unsentimental take on the various characters and their relationships makes for a distinctly poetic brand of gritty realism, and one of the most impressive first features by a British director in some years.