After their remarkable BAFTA award-winning short About a Girl (Best British Short Film, EIFF 2001) and successful careers working in television, director Brian Percival and writer Julie Rutterford’s latest feature is a sympathetic study of a young boy’s unexpected and accelerated ascent into adulthood. With a visual style reminiscent of the work of renowned British photographer Martin Parr, and images of decaying British beach fronts and rundown seaside cafés, this charming feature exudes warmth, sympathy and humour in equal measure. Young newcomer Kyle Ward displays a natural talent way beyond his years in the central role of intelligent but rebellious teenager Robbie, whose life spirals violently out of control when he becomes a parent at the tender age of 14. Feeling angry and alone, he sets out to build a relationship with his own father, who – having abandoned Robbie’s mother many years previously – is virtually a stranger to the boy. Ward transcribes the confusion and loneliness of a thoughtful 14-year-old boy finding himself catapulted, at great speed, into the strange and frightening world of adults. In one uplifting and charming scene, possibly symbolising this headlong rush from childhood into adulthood, Robbie is memorably involved in a furious chase with a man dressed as a giant, angry ice cream cone, such humour bringing a brief but welcome respite from the gravity of his precarious situation. Other scenes with Robbie’s father, played to perfection by Ian Hart (Land and Freedom, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone), are by turns playful and poignant, and not without a subtle and dark sense of humour. Their growing rapport eventually becomes the central premise of the film and as their fragile relationship develops, they each begin to understand the responsibilities and anxieties that come with being a father. A Boy Called Dad is the first feature film from UK production company Made Up North Productions, which was set up by in 2004 to support and encourage new filmmaking talent in the North of England.