Richard Cameron adapts his own 1992 play in this sweet and, at times, rather sad slice-of-life drama, set during a stagnant summer in a working-class mining village in South Yorkshire. From the impeccable tracksuits to the use of Rednex’s novelty pop hit Cotton Eye Joe and Richard Hawley’s original score, period details are winkingly observed; Tony Blair looms large on the TV, in the newspaper and even in trivia at the local bingo. Esme Creed-Miles gives an impressive, twitchy performance as the eccentric Pogo, equal parts watchful and dreamy, with a coiled intensity that threatens to snap at any moment. Boisterous preteens Shane (Gianluca Gallucci) and Dave (Ethan Wilkie) are similarly watchable, pervy curiosity clashing with their childish cuteness. A pond does feature, but the film is less about the oversize carp swimming in its depths than it is about the pond as public square, and the fragile ecosystem of Pogo’s community.
