After spending much of the 1990's making a name for himself as an intense character actor in the likes of Trainspotting and My Name Is Joe, Peter Mullan announced himself as a director to watch with 1998's Cousins. He followed that four years later with the powerful The Magdalene Sisters, but didn't make another film until eight years later with his most personal project to date, Neds. His tough upbringing in a rough area of Glasgow meant that his talents in front of the camera would normally be employed in tough, intimidating roles, and Mullan drew upon his experiences as a young man for Neds, a social realist drama depicting an academically promising young boy's descent into gang culture and into the footsteps of his notorious older brother.'Neds' stands for Non-Educated Delinquents, a term I heard often during my time living in Edinburgh, and one applied to the sort of tracksuit-wearing hooligans also labelled as 'scallies' or 'chavs', depending on which area of the UK you're from. The 'ned' here is John McGill, played by Greg Forrest as a youngster growing up in 70's Glasgow who hopes to use his intelligence to make something of himself, but finds himself pulled onto the streets due to a number of factors: from his disinterested, cane-happy teachers to the pressure of living up to his brother's reputation. He grows taller and broader (to be played by Conor McCarron) and quickly makes a name for himself, participating in petty crime and street fights, and rebelling against his school education. His home isn't a happy one, and the family live under the tyrannical rule of John's father (played by Mullan). Mr. McGill isn't much to look at, but he has a presence terrifying enough to silence a room when he enters, and a tendency to come home drunk and bawl abuse at his long-suffering wife.Mullan has a real talent for staging tense situations, with some of the events played out in Neds no doubt taken directly from real experiences. A booze-fuelled neighbourhood party quickly deteriorates into smashed windows and a mass brawl, with the thugs brandishing the ugliest of weapons designed to cause maximum harm. There's heart and humour too, and Mullan manages to keep John sympathetic throughout, despite his questionable behaviour. Despite his concentration, Mullan drags the film out longer than is needed, and a number of the climactic scenes are suited to be the film's final moment. A swerve into drug-fuelled surrealist territory is well-intended but doesn't really work when wedged into the film's ultra-realist aesthetic, and the scene feels out-of-place and unintentionally amusing. Still, this is raw, unflinching film-making from a director clearly hoping to draw attention to the plight of youngsters growing up in such grim working-class surroundings, where respect is earned through brutality and allegiances are decided by which side of the bridge you live on.

This harsh drama follows a young Joe McGill (Gregg Forrest), as he enters middle school in early 70's Glasgow. He is viciously ostracized for his intellect and the fierce reputation of his older brother Benny (Joe Szula). Tormented by school bullies and his drunkard father; growing up, Joe (Conor McCarron), decides it is easier to follow in his brother's footsteps and become a NED (non-educated delinquent), because it is easier to survive the times and neighborhood being a ruthless hoodlum. Being violent brought him recognition just as being studious seemed to trap him.Very intense character developing; disturbing images and situations with raw language. The soundtrack features music by the likes of Hot Chocolate, T. Rex, Neil Reid and The New Seekers. Rounding out the cast: John Joe Hay, Khai Nugent, Mhairi Anderson, Ryan Walker, Scott Ingram, Gary Milligan and Christopher Wallace.

Growing up in inner city Glasgow in the Seventies, gangs are ubiquitous. The stories of stabbings and kickings have an awful, magnetic allure. Jimmy Boyle, mythologised by his lack of presence due to incarceration, like an Anti-Mandela figure, is the archetypal hardman in a town still nicknamed No Mean City. Glasgow's Miles Better has yet to be thought of. And school is not where you learn, it is where you survive.Like Lynne Ramsey's Ratcatcher, Neds resonates with Glaswegians born in the Sixties who grew up in this mayhem, and now look at it with the benefit of age and distance and wonder how we ever took it for normality.John is the academically gifted younger brother of a locally respected/ feared ned. His father is mostly missing or drunk, his mother struggles to cope. Like many Scots, the family role model is the one who has exiled herself. Joe's big brother Benny (a charismatic Joe Szula) provides a buffer between him and the worst of the violence - but also gives him a free pass towards initiation. Mean, visceral humiliation from local bully Kanta propels John away from study and towards Benny's sphere of influence. After many trials and betrayals, John survives that, till another humiliation at the point of a crossbow pushes him again to the brink.Cinematically, Mullen is playful and challenging here. The director says Kubrick and Peckinpah were evoked in keeping with the time; the duct taping of knives to hands is pure Peckinpah, and the juxtaposition of foot-tapping music with jaw-breaking violence recalls Kubrick. The ending is big canvas cinema, but it worked for me. There is also a lovely rhythm here, the gangs running toward and away from each other more often than not. That's how I remember it in Maryhill - big boys always running after or away from other big boys.Drunk Dads (Mullen in an acting career best), Bolan, six of the belt, winchin' up the graveyard, change on the buses, Provvie cheques - I loved it. But then I grew up with it. Outside Glasgow, and a certain generation, this might be more difficult to access. It will do better in Europe and Asia where the subtitles will help, and the essential coming-of-age story will rise to the fore more.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning John (Connor McCarron) excels as a child in his studies, but the rough, hard environment around him soon has an effect on his personal character and, as he grows up in 1970s Glasgow, he moulds into one of the pack, as problems at home and school breed the violent character within him, going up against the hard drinking, knife wielding thugs that are the sworn enemies of the hard drinking, knife wielding thugs he's in with.Glasgow still holds the notorious accolade of being 'the knife crime capital of Great Britain', so this could have been just as hard hitting and unflinching as it was setting out to be being a modern day drama. Instead, director Peter Mullan has presented a sprawling, overlong if I'm brutally honest, exploration of a young man's despairing, senseless dessension into mindless thuggery, possibly based on his own experiences. As a result of this, it comes off as very hard to get into to start with, lost as it is in it's own mood, atmosphere and style. But it's these same things that somehow manage to make it a more absorbing experience if you stick with it long enough, slowly drawing you into the life of this troubled character and the various ups and downs he encounters as he trawls through the rough landscape of his youth. Still, this feels like quite an undisciplined effort from Mullan, which veers into outlandish, arty moments (such as the lead character duking it out with the Lord Jesus Christ) that only serve to make it an even more alienating experience than it already is. ***