THIS is an accomplished and effective treatment of the difficult subject of child abuse. It focuses on Nicholas, a shy and awkward boy whose predicament unravels in the course of a series of mishaps and terrible incidents during a ski trip with his school class.

Claude Miller's handling of the subject is artful as well as sympathetic, unfurling the sometimes vibrant, sometimes violent machinations of a disturbed imagination. Not only does he reveal Nicholas's difficulty in mixing with other children, but also the gulf between child and adult. It is a surprisingly engaging and watchable movie, with flashes of humour and lightness, as well as being shot through with the kind of tension that you would expect from a film with such a disturbing theme.