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Top 20 Alternative Picks for Cannes 2013: Clio Barnard’s The Selfish Giant

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The Selfish Giant – Clio Barnard

Section: Directors’ Fortnight

Buzz: Coming to the Croisette with one of the most anticipated sophomore films, Barnard’s multiple festival award-winning debut, experimental, bio-documentary The Arbor (2010) put her on the map of British filmmakers to watch out for.

The Gist:13 year-old Arbor and his best friend Swifty, both excluded from school and outsiders in their own neighborhood, meet Kitten, a local scrapdealer and begin collecting scrap metal for him using a horse and cart. Swifty has a natural gift with horses while Arbor emulates Kitten – keen to impress him and make some money. But when Kitten begins to favor Swifty, leaving Arbor hurt and excluded, a wedge is driven between the boys. Arbor becomes increasingly greedy and exploitative, increasing the tension between them, and leading to a tragic event which transforms them all.

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Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).

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