Review: Rascal

film profile]) without falling into the trap of complacency was far from a safe bet, but Peter Dourountzis had several cards up his sleeve to help keep his film hanging on a knife edge. Drawing on the years he spent working within the French SAMU Social (a structure providing support to excluded persons), the filmmaker has endowed Rascal with a very realistic social dimension to underpin its thriller exterior, immersing himself in the underbelly of urban Paris with real credibility. This is a world on the fringes of society, replete with train station thugs, workers contending with extreme precariousness, people sleeping rough or hiding in launderettes, and squatters and activists seizing basic necessities. But the director has the decency to keep any violence off camera and, crucially, the film benefits from a top-drawer actor in the form of