Edinburgh International Film Festival 2016 My Feral Heart ***
[tweet_box design=”default”]A bittersweet drama about Luke, a young man with Down’s Syndrome (the excellent Steven Brandon) who performs all of the household tasks and his dying mum’s personal care until he is left alone and forced to move into a residential care home.[/tweet_box]
Initially he resists making a relationship with his care worker (Shana Swash) and resents the loss of his freedom. In time however he begins to sneak out of the house to roam the local countryside and forges a friendship with Pete (Will Rastall) who was sentenced to community service following conviction as a hunt saboteur. Luke stumbles upon a girl who is a kind of enfant savage (Pixie Le Knot) and he tries to care for her by himself.
While some of the themes do not seem to hang together particularly well, this is a lovely film which affirms life and the friendships which transcend what makes us different from one another.