Synopsis
Summer, 1973. Twelve-year-old James Gillespie lives with his mother, father and sister on a Glasgow estate, grim at the best of times. One day he inadvertently causes a pal of his to drown, and whilst dreaming of leaving the estate, he cannot forget about his pal's death.
From the Back Cover
Ratcatcher is the brilliant feature-film debut of 29-year-old Scots-woman Lynne Ramsay, one of the finest new talents in world cinema.
It is the summer of 1973, and 12-year-old James Gillespie lives with his family on a Glasgow estate, which looks increasingly wretched as a dustmen's strike wears on. One day, James inadvertently causes a pal of his to drown in the local canal, and he flees the scene,apparently unseen. He strikes up a touching intimacy with an older girl whom the other estate lads use for sex; and he dreams of leaving the estate for one of the big, clean, new houses being built a few miles out of town. But finally James cannot escape his circumstances any more than he can forget about his pal's untimely death.
'Ramsay's way with imagery - her sense of how and where to place the camera, and how to preserve the tone of a situation - makes Ratcatcher a film of a unique kind: the most interesting and humane British debut since Bill Douglas brought My Childhood to Edinburgh in 1973.' Andrew O'Hagan, Daily Telegraph
