Doc/Fest - Sheffield

Chloe Ruthven has long believed that listening and meaningful communication can stop troubled youths from falling into a life of crime. She puts her theory into practice with Mario and Nini, eight-year-old Albanian refugees who have reputations as trouble makers in their North London primary school. Over the next five years, Ruthven mentors the two boys, listening to them, and exposing them to new experiences. She encourages them to make a documentary film themselves, but their decision to make a film about street crime, and their fawning interviews of adolescent criminals are warning signs that, despite Ruthven's best efforts, she is having difficulty overcoming the forces at work: parents supplying guns instead of values and a school curriculum out of touch with its population. The boys’ evolution from lively kids into angry, foul-mouthed thugs is food for thought for anyone trying to raise boys, or scared of those they come across on the streets.