Films of the Schools'Festival

Billy Elliot

United Kingdom - 1999 - 1h50 min

Director : Stephen Daldry
Cast : Jamie Bell, Gary Lewis, Charlie Hardwick ...

Billy Elliot is an 11-year-old boy living in north east England in the mid-1980s. While his gruff father and brother are taking part in a massive coal miners strike, Billy goes to boxing lessons and furtively plays his dead mother's piano out of loneliness. One day Billy notices a ballet class nearby. Intrigued, he begins practising and taking lessons from Mrs. Wilkinson (Julie Walters), a tough-minded teacher. Billy begins to fall in love with ballet but keeps his lessons a secret from his family, who struggle to put food on the table while the strike drags on. When his father finally learns the truth, a family crisis erupts, and Billy struggles to prove that dancing is more than just a hobby it's his dream. 'Billy Elliot' is a touching and heartwarming story that avoids cliches by setting the story in the grim mining town of northern England amid economic hardship and sacrifice, showing the joy and release that dancing provides for Billy. Newcomer Jamie Bell, who does all his own dancing in the film, deserves special credit for his performance as Billy.

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