Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go

For the forty children who call it home, Mulberry Bush is their last chance. Excluded from school for extreme behaviour, and often having suffered severe emotional trauma, they are given three years at the Oxford boarding school to try to turn their lives around. Acclaimed documentary maker Kim Longinotto has once again turned her compassionate lens on to people living in extraordinary circumstances. The fragile young boys at the heart of her film lash out in shockingly extreme ways - hitting, swearing and spitting their way through the misery of their blighted childhoods. Endlessly patient and determined staff members verbally reason with the boys, whilst often having to restrain them physically.

Hold Me Tight is ultimately a heartbreaking, engrossing study of dysfunction - of what happens when families break down. It also pays witness to the tremendous influence that adults hold - for bad and for good - upon growing children.