I think the only other Ken Loach film I've seen is Kes, so this movie surprised me. Set in 1750 in England, about 12-year-old boy named Tolly who is forced to go on the run with a huge French criminal called Black Jack. Tolly is rather calm about it.
He rescues a girl his age who's being transported to a lunatic asylum, they escape from Black Jack and join a medicine show. There's blackmail, body snatching, child labor, traveling performers. Tolly wants to go to sea even though he's twelve.
I'll tell you one thing that surprised me: that everyone was fully literate. Tolly reads about mental illness in a medical book, another kid takes a quick look the insane asylum ledger and finds the information he needs, they write letters.
This was made a half million pounds. Reportedly, Loach had been working a lot in television at the time but heard he could get funding to make a children's movie. The story revolved around three twelve-year-olds---Tolly and the girl, Belle, and this awful kid who really does pretty well for himself as a blackmailer.
The kids were non-professional actors and had no other acting credits on imdb. The outdoor scenes were shot in 16mm, the interiors in 35mm. The sound mix was done in a weekend.
The non actors were very natural. In one scene, Tolly rubs his eye for a second as he talks to another character. A trained actor would have waited and a lesser director would have done a retake.
Available in The Criterion Channel.
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