Nil by Mouth

Nil by Mouth is a very harsh and uncompromising social-realist depiction of how violence breeds violence. After a somewhat slow start, in which the common thread is hard to make out, the themes unfold in the second half of the film.

The film is set in a working-class district of South London, and its characters belong to society's losers. The violent, drunken petty criminal Raymond readily beats up business associates, cronies, his cocaine-snorting brother-in-law Billy and even his wife Valerie, who is pregnant with the couple's second child. She stays nonetheless, but when he beats her so badly that she miscarries and has to be hospitalised, she finally says enough and moves in with her mother. Raymond smashes up their home in rage and helplessness, for he does love her - and she actually loves him too. Incredibly, they get back together, and it is in fact an ending you believe in.