The impact of poverty and their "survival" home life is brutally portrayed and we do care for these ratty broken characters throughout the film. It is to the film's credit that here we do not dislike them although we hate their circumstance.
This is quite the feat because in the real world the sight of Arbor and Swifty coming would have you keeping an eye on your car and assuming the worst till they are gone. The story makes this world convincing and depressing although at the same time it does not allow us to be turned off by the characters. This world is one of few options where everyone is out for themselves and characters stripping metal like Bubs in The Wire, although here it is to just pay the installments for a sofa (which has already been sold on to get cash). This is very much in the traditional mould of British kitchen-sink drama, although in this film if there was a traditional kitchen sink, no doubt Arbor would have had it down the tatters with half a chance. The basic story here doesn't exactly rip along and although it does have some bigger moments and revelations, it is very much about putting us into this world and letting us experience it. As they deal with scrap merchant Kitten, Arbor aspires to his money while Swifty shows a natural aptitude towards Diesel, the yard horse that Kitten also races. Expelled from school for yet another fight, Arbor leads the two to get into the market for recovered tat – with stolen copper cabling being a particularly lucrative line of business. The plot sees two boys, the fast-talking Arbor and the slower but kinder Swifty the two are friends and have in common that their home lives are a mess with chaos and poverty being common themes. As a story teller she delivers really well here with a film that is savaging depressing but yet realistic and convincing. Although I had some problems with her early shorts, her last film and previous short both were very strong and I felt sure she could continue in that vein. It is just over a decade ago that by chance I watched Clio Barnard's first short film Lambeth Marsh by intention or by chance since then I have seen her other works although I was a little late coming to The Selfish Giant.
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