Chicken

The powerful feature-film debut of acclaimed young director Joe Stephenson, this compelling coming-of-age drama builds upon on a remarkable central performance from newcomer Scott Chambers.Chambers plays Richard, a fifteen-year-old boy with learning difficulties who lives in a shabby caravan with his older brother, Polly. Life for the siblings is harsh, with the engaging, nature-loving teenager yearning for stability while frequently finding himself on the wrong side of his brother's destructive, often violent moods.Finding it easier to communicate with animals none more so than his beloved hen, Fiona Richard nevertheless forms a strong friendship with rebellious seventeen-year-old Annabel, whose family have recently acquired the farmland on which the brothers live. But growing conflict with the new landowners will lead to a situation that severely tests Richard's natural optimism, as a world of privilege collides with the brothers' precarious, marginalised existence.