Directed by Clio Barnard

Starring Manjinder Virk, Christine Bottomley

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Andrea Dunbar was a success story of modern British drama โ€“ and one of its tragedies.

Best known to film audiences as writer of Alan Clarkeโ€™s Rita, Sue And Bob Too! (1986), Dunbar grew up on an impoverished Bradford estate and established herself, through the Royal Court, as a vital voice of working-class Britain.

However, she died at 29, after a drink-related decline.

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Shot on the Bradford estate where she lived, Clio Barnardโ€™s film documents its subjectโ€™s life and career, but beyond that, it paints a portrait of a family, a community and a harsh period of modern British history.

Named after Dunbarโ€™s first play and her old street, The Arbor is as much imaginative essay as documentary, with actors lip-synching to the voices of real people โ€“ among them, the writerโ€™s daughter, Lorraine.

The effect, distractingly artificial at first, serves to make this distressing story all the more immediate. Revealing, moving and entirely individual.

Jonathan Romney