TRIBUTES AND RETROSPECTIVES

n 1977, Alan Clarke made an initial version of Scum as part of a commission for BBC’s “Play for Today”. Given the violence of the film it was withdrawn by the BBC and not broadcast until 1991, one year after Clarke’s death. In 1979, with the help of private producers, Clarke bought back the rights of the film and made a cinema version with the same leading actors. “As always with Clarke, the film’s efficiency comes from the repetition of events and camera movements. Between unfair punishment and language reduced to insults, the borstal is a hell where the administrative strictness of the director is nothing more than an official, but just as appalling, form of the violence inherent to human relations” (Didier Peron). Borstals were abolished three years after Scum was released in cinemas. The film, “where the inevitable explosion of revolt leads only to heightened repression” (Peron), is filled with a chilling pessimism and leaves audiences “with no answers but many questions” (Philippe Azoury).