After making her name with a series of haunting and atmospheric short films all set around her native Glasgow, director Lynne Ramsay made her feature debut with Ratcatcher in 1999. Set during the Glasgow Binmen strike of 1973, the film is a coming of age tale that follows the life of 12 year old James Gillespie as he negotiates poverty, the loss of his friend (for which he feels responsible), his father's alcoholism and his burgeoning sexuality. Ratcatcher recalls some of the best examples of coming of age cinema, in particular Francois Truffaut's similarly themed first film as director Les Quatre Cents Coups (The 400 Blows). Truffaut said of his film that it was "the chronicle of the thirteenth year, the most difficult since it marks the passage from childhood to adolescence", although Ratcatcher's James is in his twelfth year, this "thirteenth year" aspect of Truffaut's film feels equally applicable to Ramsay's elegiac work.
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