Released 1st October 04

DVD

Two brothers return to the home town they left years before. They are close, but very different: Richard is strong and purposeful, Anthony younger, more hesitant. Everything Richard does, Anthony innocently mimics. He is slightly retarded and completely in awe of his brother, who in turn is very protective of him.

They set up camp in the hills overlooking the town, reminiscing over their shared past. But they're not here to reminisce. Richard is here for revenge.

He knows who he wants and he knows where they live. The town he left eight years ago is still run by the same gang of small-time drug dealers and thugs. The threat of his presence is enough to instill suspicion and paranoia. Why is he back? What does he want? Who is he after? One by one, he tracks them down, striking fear into their hearts and turning them against one another. As the gang falls apart, we learn the terrible truth about what went before and how a brother's love inspired violent retribution.

Guardian Review - Philip French: This is a very skillful, superbly edited piece of moviemaking, intriguing, gripping. It's steeped in a particular area, yet weaves together social realism and myth the way High Plains Drifter does. Ultimately, it's a moral fable of a religious kind, which is underlined by the final sequence when pop and country music give way to Arvo Pärt's De Profundis .

The acting has the raw reality we find in Ken Loach and, at the centre, as Richard, there's another striking performance by Paddy Considine, who co-scripted the picture with Meadows. After making his feature debut in Meadows's A Room for Romeo Brass, Considine has appeared in Pawel Pawlikowski's The Last Resort, Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People and Jim Sheridan's In America. He's established himself as one of the key actors in British independent cinema, an edgy, unpredictable presence. Here, he switches in an instant from seductive friendliness to blood-freezing menace, determining the movie's tone and focusing its moral thrust.