Ken Loach’s films are never particularly easy viewing. They are almost always about the working class and always startlingly realistic in their portrayal of poverty in said class. Whatever your views on the man he never fails to deliver an emotionally draining film that sports incredibly powerful performances from its actors. Loach isn’t a flashy director; there is no fast MTV style editing or crazy camera angles and definitely no special effects. Instead, Loach lets the actors do the work which is perfect for a man who makes films about real people and real situations.

That’s the overriding feeling I took away from Sweet Sixteen, the realism. I live in Scotland; I see these kinds of people, these kinds of slum areas every day in the newspapers and on the TV. Heck, I can walk out the door and 15 minutes down the road is an area not unlike the one depicted in this film. I can testify that the poverty, violence and drug use in Scotland is getting worse and there is no light at the end of the tunnel for people that find themselves in Liam’s situation. It’s depressing, but sadly it is fact. Ken Loach knows this and Sweet Sixteen shows us this.

Liam is only 15 years old when the film opens, but he is forced early on to take matters into his own hands to try and make his dream come true. He doesn’t want to escape the slums; all he wants is for a stable home environment to be in place for his mother. Unfortunately Liam’s current breadwinner scheme of selling knocked off fags (cigarettes) is not taking in the kind of money he needs. He takes the option that so many other young people take, to sell drugs.

Liam is not a user, he is clean, and he doesn’t see drug dealing as bad. He merely sees it as another job, another way to make the money he needs. It’s an alluring prospect for the poverty stricken youth with little or no education. By dealing drugs he can make big money fast, unfortunately it’s a rocky road and Liam soon finds himself in deeper than he can handle. Eventually Liam’s quest to fulfil his dream ends up robbing him off his adolescence as he descends deeper and deeper into the very world he is trying to escape.

Martin Compston is a revelation as Liam. Loach has a habit of casting unknown actors in his films and it usually pays off. It pays of brilliantly here as Compston carries the film brilliantly. It’s hard to believe that this young man has never acted before; his performance is so engrossing and convincing. He perfectly conveys the joy, the anger and the despair of a young man in such a desperate situation.

The rest of the cast is also made up of unknown actors and again they all do their job brilliantly. From Annmarie Fulton as Liam’s sister Chantelle and Michelle Couter as Liam’s mother Jean right through to William Ruane as Liam’s best friend Pinball. As dark as the film is there are laughs to be had, primarily thanks to the relationship between Liam and Pinball. Again it’s so utterly convincing you truly believe that these two have been firm friends since a very young age.

The realism covers the dialogue as well. The script by Paul Laverty won the Best Screenplay award at last years Cannes, but its par for the course on a Loach set for the actors to improvise heavily. Whether it came from Laverty or the actors is unimportant, what is important is how convincing the dialogue is. The script is littered liberally with course language from the mild to the worst words there are. Every other word is f*** or s*** and even the occasional c***. This is spot on as the people who live in these areas do speak like this. They don’t even think of it as swearing, it’s second nature to them.

Violence also plays a big part in the day to day lives of these people. You regularly read about incidents where residents are frightened to walk down the street because they fear for their safety. Sweet Sixteen paints a picture of this excellently. Young thugs are shown wandering the streets in groups, hanging around housing schemes and on apartment steps. I really cannot stress enough how realistic this film is in its portrait of working class Scottish life.