Irish Film Institute -RED ROAD

RED ROAD

Director: ANDREA ARNOLD

U.K. • 2005 • COLOUR • DOLBY DIGITAL STEREO • 93 MIN


IT’S SUCH OBVIOUS SUBJECT MATTER FOR A FILM THAT IT’S A WONDER MICHAEL HANEKE DIDN’T THINK OF IT FIRST.
Jackie (Scots theatre actress Kate Dickie) is a CCTV operator for the Glasgow police, manning a bank of screens and spotting trouble as it breaks out in the drink-fuelled cavalcade of the city’s nightly lot. One roughlooking individual (Tony Curran) comes in for particular scrutiny however, and we begin to surmise that there’s a deeper connection between them, one which might perhaps explain her lonely existence. It would be unfair to give much more away, since Andrea Arnold’s feature debut is cannily confident in the way it drip-feeds us significant information, but there’s certainly unfinished business here which sees Jackie continue her pursuit on foot in the deeply unlovely environs of the high-rise Red Road estate. Although the fact that Arnold’s already an Oscar-winner for her short film Wasp should be some indication of a budding talent, that promise has been more than fulfilled in what’s arguably the strongest British first feature since Lynne Ramsay’s Ratcatcher. Indeed, there’s a similarly poetic response to the urban landscapes here as Arnold beautifully captures the watery Scottish light and catches the foxes howling at night just beyond the tower blocks. Yet she’s also alive to the dangerous sexual undertow of the intriguing central relationship, before magically conjuring a redemptive potency from these seemingly lost and ragged lives. With its stomach-tightening foreboding balanced against biting Scots wit, this is quite an achievement on many levels, not least its evident intimacy with the persuasive cast. Essential viewing. —Trevor Johnston.

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