5. Song For A Raggy Boy (2003)
Set in St Jude's Reformatory School in 1939, it is the eve of World War Two in Ireland. The school's discipline is exceedingly harsh and the atmosphere is dour and oppressive. The school is ruled by the sadistic Brother John and the emphasis is on punishment, not rehabilitation. However a spark of life comes to the school in the form of William Franklin, a new teacher who wants to free the boys from their ordeal. The plight of two students plays an important role in the film. Patrick Delaney is thirteen and a half. His designated number is 743. He receives the unwanted paedophiliac attentions of Brother Mac - who molests and rapes boys in the shower block. He confesses this to a visiting priest who effectively silences him. Word of his confession gets round to Brother John and he is forced naked under a freezing cold shower and given his clothes so they are also wet. Liam Mercier 636, is a tough nut, but he has an advantage over most of the other boys in that he can read and write, Franklin tries to befriend him and introduces him to communist poetry. Mercier and Franklin team up against Brother John's regime. Franklin and Mercier step in to stop the beating of two boys. As a punishment Mercier gets beaten - so badly he dies. At Mercier's funeral, Franklin denounces Brothers John and Mac as murderers in front of the boys and they get taken away. The reign of terror is ended and Franklin is hailed by the boys as their liberator. Aisling Walsh's film confronts one of Ireland's biggest taboos in her emotional film - clerical physical and sexual abuse of school age boys. This is a topic that was ignored for years and the scale of abuse is only coming to light now. The film contains some excellent acting from the boys and their teachers. This could be Aidan Quinn's best roles yet and the young boys who play Mercier and Delaney are a revelation. Not to mention Iain Glen as the sadistic Brother John who is perfect baddie material. The absolute, dreadful cruelty that the boys experienced is enough to make you cry. Really, it is truly heinous. The film definitely goes for the heart strings and it is much more effective than its sister film The Magdalene Sisters - which is the female equivalent to The Raggy Boy. The Magdalene Sisters left me cold and I turned off half way through. The Raggy Boy is much more engaging. The school is run by the Christian Brothers, who are infamous in Ireland for their brutality and strictness. When Franklin arrives at the school as the only lay teacher, the scale of clerical corruption is so vast, he doesn't fancy his chances going up against them. The ending will be deeply affecting for anyone who went to a harsh Catholic school in Ireland. And for anyone else, it is a powerful film about child abuse and exposing the system.