I see buildings fall like Lightning

   For the best British film of the year the title is mysterious. We watch the buildings fall – hundreds of homes once flats for  working people and their families. In repeated frames of destruction the buildings crash spectacularly before our eyes.  And so does the structure they supported. Realist, Patrick,(Anthony Boyle), goes to the heart of the horror in a passionate outburst to his property- developer friend Rian( Joe Cole) ; he sees the destruction as the end of the benign capitalism we all once lived with,  changed now to a brutal new structure where so many are shut out. And all typified by property .

BuIt this award- laden film is packed with deep  humanity, rooted in real life  I  See Buildings Fall Like Lightning  opened the Festival last night with this powerful film from Director Clio Barnard. From the opening frames it rolled out the story of five in contemporary Britain. The men in it,  are life long friends  yet their paths have diverged  in painful ways– and property – its destruction and replacement is at the core of the chaos – we saw a lot of cynical building action destined for a moneyed minority .

Full of vitality and conflict this remarkable film explores the lives of young men . One shot gives an entire story of the evils behind modern life – a few seconds long picture of a little girl, taken out of school by her drug -dealing father – her little face in a frame of tangled unbrushed hair. The vibrant characters live between the love of everyday family life – and the lack of it. Lola Petrew as Shiv , Patrick’s wife is a fabulous – beautiful - foil to the dangers of the world without whilst Conor ,(Daryl Mc Cormack,) rampages through drug excess and  deep disappointment to a desperate apotheosis .

Yet there is a deep sense of loyalty in the fractures of these lives, a believable survival underpins the divisive new capitalism. After the film we got to meet Clio Barnard – hard to believe her cool meditative style could be behind the violence and viciousness of the harsh lives within the new desperate structure we have fashioned for ourselves.

Balance with beautiful scenes, emotional interludes and blissful healing sex this is a film you will love. I just about had tears to nearly shed at the end of the heartfelt action. But be bold and decisive. The last showing is Friday 23rd at 6 clock in the Arts Picturehous.