Kes

A boy in a Yorkshire mining town is beaten at school, knocked about at home by his brother, and asked nothing by anybody. One day he finds a kestrel chick and starts training it. The film does not offer the bird as consolation; the narrative shows him becoming competent at something for the first time, and the scene where he explains it in class is the first time the teachers are quiet for him. Where the system is steering him is clear from the start. Ken Loach directed. It is David Bradley's first and almost only role. It is adapted from Barry Hines's novel and shot with local actors. A real warning: beating and humiliation of a child are shown directly and the ending is extremely hard. The accents are also thick and it can be difficult without subtitles.