War of the Buttons

Slim pickings from David Puttnam, reunited with Chariots of Fire screenwriter Colin Welland: this mildly diverting entertainment is a remake of Yves Robert's La Guerre des Boutons (1962). Transposed to County Cork, the film charts the feud between the pupils of neighbouring village schools, the Carricks and the Ballys. While the dispute's origins remain hazy, it soon escalates via public humiliation and private recrimination to 'all-out war', sticks and stones - and buttons - at the ready. Relatively unsentimental.