Ken Loach's Sweet Sixteen (2002)

I'm gradually catching up with Ken Loach's films, sometimes referred to as social realism, sometimes as neo-realism (see my posts of July 16 2017, March 26 2018, Sept. 3 2020).  I tend to see them as influenced by De Sica in their sympathy for those on the fringes of society and by Bresson in the use of non-professional actors.  Sweet Sixteen takes place in Greenrock, Scotland, where Liam (Martin Compston) and his friend Pinball (William Ruane) are trying to make money any way they can, including selling stolen cigarettes.  Liam wants to have a place to live with his single-mother sister and his own mother, currently in prison on a drug charge.  When Liam steals drugs to sell from his abusive grandfather he attracts attention from the local syndicate boss, who recruits him to sell drugs in his large organization.  But everything soon goes wrong and his mother, when she gets out of prison, doesn't want to stay in the flat provided for Liam by the drug czar and leaves to live with a fellow addict.  As Liam turns sixteen his whole world has fallen apart and he doesn't know where to turn.

Loach, writer Paul Laverty and cinematographer Barry Ackroyd paint an intelligent and sympathetic portrait of young people in Scotland who have nowhere to go and have to struggle on their own with the often grim reality of the world, constantly stymied by authorities and bureaucracies.