Pavee Lackeen (15) <!-- none onestar twostar threestar fourstar fivestar -->

A drama so close to documentary you can barely distinguish where one ends and the other begins. First-time director Perry Ogden chronicles the hardscrabble life of an Irish traveller family on the forlorn margins of modern-day Dublin. A desolate picture emerges of alternating neglect and interference, most of it refracted through the character of 10-year-old Winnie, a tough cookie who would like to be placed in a "settled" school but instead gets herself into trouble with roughneck types who call her a "whore".

If Ogden had tried to shape a convincing story around his subjects rather than loosely improvising, his film might have had a real impact.