Director Andrea Arnold followed her exceptional feature debut Red Road with this equally powerful drama of a female on the margins, which featured a remarkable performance from non-professional newcomer Katie Jarvis as 15 year-old Mia.

Since being kicked out of school, fierce-tempered and foul-mouthed teen Mia (Jarvis) spends her days guzzling beer and practising hip-hop dance moves. Living with her single mother in a grimy corner of Essex, she dreams of one day being a dancer and leaving behind her council flat existence. That is until her world is up-ended by the arrival of her mother's charismatic new boyfriend (Michael Fassbender). The attraction between the two is immediate and palpable, if a little suspect. With intimate realism and subtle complexity, the outstanding performances of both Jarvis and Fassbender - whose chemistry fizzes and then explodes - bravely explores the uncertainties of female adolescent sexuality.

A highly intelligent and involving film from one of the most powerful voices in British cinema, Fish Tank breathed new life back into British realism with a lyrical jolt.

Screening with short film Wasp (2003) - Andrea Arnold’s Oscar winner (for Best Short) is a piece of social realist film poetry and a searing and intimate portrait of a single mum and her four children in contemporary Britain.

Onwards and Outwards is made possible with support from the BFI, awarding funds from the National Lottery.

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