A tough, sympathetic and entertaining portrait of a life gone helplessly awry, Summer emphasises the indelibility of childhood experience, the permanence of bad decisions, and the inequality of opportunity. At home, Shaun (Robert Carlyle) spends the bulk of his time caring, in a fractious kind of way, for his wheelchair-bound best friend Daz (Steve Evets). What brought them to this? As Shaun assesses his lot, we piece together a story of misfortune piled upon misfortune: of early frustrations calcified by indifference within the education system, and a resulting stigma that often proves impossible to erase.

Kenny Glenaan’s previous feature-length works as director – Gas Attack (EIFF Michael Powell Award-winner, 2001) and Yasmin (EIFF 2004) – have made forceful social points, and Summer’s screenwriter Hugh Ellis has a background in political lobbying; this film, too, has an issue to address, but its strength is primarily in its emotional honesty rather than its political stance. Like Shane Meadows, Glenaan is adept at bringing human warmth to the bleakest settings: we care for Shaun because he’s appealing and complex, not because of what he stands for. Also a powerful presence in the film is the seductive realm of memory: his teenage love life has become a treasured erotic idyll for Shaun, who has never found another woman to compare to his classy first love Katy.

Tony Slater-Ling’s sensual, evocative photography assists in the creation of an idealised, sun-soaked youth. Constantly measuring his current lot against that brief spell of bliss, Shaun is a man who has become stuck: bitter about life’s blows, bound by a powerful sense of responsibility to Daz, and sexually jealous of his own sixteen-year-old self. Anchored by an agile, moving performance from Carlyle, Glenaan’s film is a wise and affecting challenge to the dangerous stereotype of the emotionally-disconnected working class hard man.