An Analysis of Representation of 'The Selfish Giant'

About the Film
 'The Selfish Giant' is a 2013 British Drama film directed by Clio Barnard.

The film is about Arbor and Swifty, who are two teenage boys growing up in Bradford. Arbor suffers from hyperactive disorder which leads him to unintentionally get into trouble. The boys decide to start earning money after getting suspended from school. They sell scrap to their local scrap dealer called Kitten.
For todays post I will be discussing the representations of Regional Identity, Age, Disability, Social class, Gender and Ethnicity.


Regional Identity:

7:29

This establishing shot denotes a grey cloudy sky which takes up most of the mise-en-scene. You can also see horses and abandoned trees in the back and dry grass. This shot connotes that as the horses are on their own, this foreshadows Arbors and Swiftys situation. Also, the weather connotes that something big is going to happen as the start of the film showed the same establishing shot, but during the night with stars in the sky, which connotes that the film does not have a happy story line.


47:07

This establishing shot denotes a street with houses on the right, and a horse straddle on the road. There are trees behind the houses and houses look very big. The houses connotes that the people that live there are everyday working class people as they are big but don't look very expensive. This is a convention of British Social Realism. Also the horse carriage connotes that even though the era is quite modern, people are still living in poverty and have to travel on horses.  In the shot you can also see a car parked next to a house and this connotes that even though there is a horse on the road, there were people that were a higher class in the time  and also hints that the film
has an urban side to it.


Age:
25:17

This mid shot denotes Arbor encouraging Kitten to let them work more so they get more money like the older men. This already connotes that even though there is a massive age gap between them, Arbor thinks everyone should get treated the same. Also the fact that Kitten says to him: "You should be in school", connotes that even though it is not normal that these young boys are not in school, the grown ups are not really concerned about it and this shows that no matter how old someone is, they can still be irresponsible, like Kitten who is letting the boys work for him.


Disability:
 31:30

This over the shoulder shot denotes Swiftys mother talking to Swifty. She looks tired and worn out. Her hair is always messy and her bare face looks fed up. All which leads to depression. As a mother, she wants her son to do well and go to school but as he gets excluded, her depression connotes that she feels like she has failed her job as a mother. Her facial expressions connote that she is hopeless and can't deal with any more problems. Her condition is said to be a disability as a disability is known to be a physical or mental condition that limits a persons movement, senses or activities and her depression limits the way she lives her life.

18:00

This high angle shot denotes Arbor getting angry and encourages Swifty to punch the boy. The angle of the shot connotes that in his unstable state of mind, Arbor is a weak character due to his disability. Arbor suffers from hyperactivity disorder meaning he has anger issues. This leads him to get excluded from school which effects the people around him. The fact that people give him a hard time shows that the disabilities from that time were treated as nothing serious.




Social Class: 
11:31

 This long shot denotes Swifty's family all trying to eat their food in one room and are shouting. The dad is making the children stand up and eat as he is making a deal to sell the sofa for money, whilst the mother is trying to give everyone their food. This connotes that the family is struggling to live properly with a lack of money. Also one of the kids shout "I'm so cold" and they are wearing their jackets at home and this connotes that they cannot afford to put their heating on and pay their bills. The fact that the dad is doing all the business about the sofa, this represents the archetype of men doing all the business work and the woman staying at home looking after the children and working at home.This is typical of the British Social Realism genre as the family is going through an everyday struggle in life.

Gender:
12:47

In this shot, the father is screaming at the mother saying "You're useless arn't ya, you're supposed to put money aside for the electric". This connotes that the woman are treated as lower than men and are degraded by men. Also the fact that she was supposed to put the money aside herself connotes that she has to do most, if not all the work in the house with no help from anyone. This contrasts with the fact that throughout the whole film you only see men working in the factories and industrialized jobs and this connotes that most woman stay at home looking after the house.

Ethnicity:
25:43

In this shot you can see that all the workers there are white and also throughout the film you see that majority of the people are white and this connotes that the target audience for this film was white people. Also the fact that the way the white people talk to each other is mostly swearing and using rough language connotes that the white people are living in hard struggles and uneducated.