The Dorkels

Documentary and drama blur in this sincere, raw film from director Jean-Charles Hue, who has been filming French travellers since 2003. He made a doc about them in 2010, but here he turns their lives in a noir-ish western, casting non-professionals from the community as his leads.

Dorkel is the surname of 18-year-old Jason, who lives in a caravan on a lawless scrap of wasteland next to a dual carriageway on the outskirts of the Paris suburbs. The day before his confirmation at an evangelical church (actually it’s an evangelical tent, with a pastor in a leather jerkin), Jason’s brother walks back into his life after a 15-year prison stretch.

The kid’s predicament is not exactly original: will his bro tempt him into a life of crime? But after a sluggish start, ‘The Dorkels’ hots up into a decent thriller as the brothers take a crack at stealing a vanload of copper from a scrapyard.