The acclaimed feature debut from writer\/director Charlotte Regan has just arrived in UK cinemas. <\/p>
Acclaimed independent film Scrapper has just arrived in UK cinemas \u2013 telling the story of a 12-year-old girl and her estranged father who returns from Ibiza to care for her following her mother\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
That synopsis might make it sound like a relatively bleak, social realist drama, but the film is actually anything but: it\u2019s a brightly coloured, extremely imaginative film that handles tough themes with an impressively light touch.<\/p>\n
And star Harris Dickinson \u2013 who plays absentee father Jason \u2013 admits that the way in which the film subverts the tropes of previous British films focusing on working-class communities was a huge pull when it came to signing up for the project.<\/p>
\u201cI read the script and really loved it,\u201d he told RadioTimes.com<\/a> in an exclusive interview. \u201cI think it was just the sort of fresh take on the genre, you know, moving away from the stereotypical version of this film in a British landscape.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd it felt like it was tackling a multitude of themes in exciting ways with comedy and magical realism.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking more about the comedy of the film, he added that \u201chumour is an important part of psychology\u201d and suggested it can play a role in further driving home the more serious aspects of a film.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need humour in order to sort of accept the more dramatic themes within art,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like it\u2019s very important.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n Meanwhile, writer\/director Charlotte Regan \u2013 who is making her feature debut \u2013 said that the idea right from the start of the project was to portray working-class life in a more colourful way.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was just like, how can we intentionally make like a working-class film that has more joy and a lot more colour and more happiness in it?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I\u2019d like grown up watching a lot of the desaturated, like super bleak ones, which were incredible films but always felt like they were missing the joy of those communities, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n She also mentioned a number of films that had helped inspire the feel of her own, referencing the early work of Taika Waititi and Sean Baker\u2019s 2017 gem The Florida Project.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Florida Project does it quite well,\u201d she explained. \u201cIt\u2019s dealing with heavy topics but does it in a way where the kid\u2019s play feels more central than the heavy topic does. You know, it\u2019s almost secondary to the joy, I guess.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd like Paris, Texas and Paper Moon and films like that, for sure.\u201d<\/p> \n