Scum

Be warned that you should go into this film with your guard up. By the time the final scene has faded quietly out, you will probably be in a state of shock.

The film details life in a Borstal institution and the violence and racial hatred that runs rampant through both the prisoners and their wardens. There is nothing cheery here at all and that is precisely the point. Director Alan Clarke deliberately films with a documentary style and it is this realism that makes the film so shattering. Scenes of sexual and racial abuse are placed in front of the camera and no raw nerve is spared the touch of the film.

It should be shown to youngsters as a reason not to turn to crime.