En Garde

Modest but intelligent and affecting portrait of Alice, an introverted 16-year-old dumped into a home by her self-centred mother, who is befriended – somewhat against the odds – by a chatty Kurdish asylum-seeker living in the same institution. Their fragile relationship is threatened not only by the disruptive influence of an interested boy, but by Alice’s hearing disorder, conveyed by Polat with an expressive expressionist soundtrack. With decent performances, it’s sweet but never overly sentimental, but it never quite takes off properly.