Gillies MacKinnon’s new film is not just another movie about "drugs".

"I don’t see this as a 'social realist' film about drugs – I wouldn’t have done it, had I thought that’s what it was. I think it’s a British film about a little boy trying to save his mother." Director Gillies MacKinnon is adamant about not pigeon-holing his latest film Pure as a message movie. The truth is, approached from the angle he prefers – 10-year-old Paul is trying to bring up his younger brother and prop up their single mum who’s hooked on heroin and her pimp/dealer – the film is actually far more potent stuff.

Despite the East End setting, Pure artfully avoids any "luverly cocknee" stereotypes. No doubt helped by MacKinnon’s own previous experiences as a London youth worker ("Though back then it wasn’t so much heroin, more glue sniffing") and inventive casting, with lead roles played by Canadian Molly Parker and Australian David "Faramir" Wenham. It’s also anchored by a superb performance from young Harry Eden as Paul, another in the roster of excellent child actors MacKinnon has unearthed - a topic he modestly laughs off:

"I was a cartoonist, a teacher and a youth worker for years, and I’ve got two children of my own, so if I haven’t learned something about children by now, then I must be a complete idiot."

A self-confessed Jock Londoner, Mackinnon’s restless, itinerant film career has alighted in the Great War trenches (Regeneration), 70s Morocco (Hideous Kinky) and 60s Glasgow (Small Faces), all with the same clear-eyed, unsentimental humanism. And while, as in Pure, he’s back dealing with family dynamics, he’s also got his eye on the wider picture. "Nowadays we’re living in a Big Brother society more and more," he asserts. "This Labour government is creating a greater human vacuum. People no longer feel that their voice has any importance." If only he were a social realist, eh? Leigh Singer 02 May 03