No, not the return of Sacha Baron Cohen’s outrageous Austrian fashion reporter. This Bruno – minus the umlaut – is a beautiful brown vizsla, the canine companion of a rough sleeper in Karl Golden’s London-set drama. It’s a well-intentioned look at homelessness if a bit soap-opera-ish at times, and perhaps not entirely authentic about the challenges of getting off the streets.
Diarmaid Murtagh plays Irishman Daniel who’s been crashing in an empty lockup near a railway line in Hackney with his dog Bruno. Golden pushes the camera right up close to Daniel’s face as he tramps the streets, amplifying the noise of screeching trains and rumbling traffic; we feel his stress levels. Murtagh nicely underplays it: head down, avoiding eye contact, battened down against the world. There’s a terrific scene where he bumps into someone from his old life, a former colleague. A ripple of shame passes over his face as the guy pretends not to notice his filthy clothes.
Daniel is particularly drawn to a children’s playground, which clearly has a connection to his past. It’s here that he’s attacked by a gang of youths; rushed to A&E he loses sight of Bruno. The next night, back at the playground looking for his dog, Daniel instead finds a seven-year-old boy, Izzy (Woody Norman), who has run away from home. Here the plot takes a forced lurch. Instead of marching the kid straight to a police station, Daniel allows himself to be befriended by Izzy and the pair search for Bruno. Not even a revelation about a tragedy in Daniel’s past properly explains why he’d take the risk of being caught wandering the streets with a missing child.
As a redemptive storyline it feels far-fetched, but still, this is an empathy-generating film, and a reminder that anyone is vulnerable to homelessness.
• Bruno is available from 13 December on digital platforms.
