"GUMMO" is the acclaimed debut feature from 23 year-old "Kids" writer, Harmony Korine. It is a mad, poetic, and highly imaginative portrait of a small town that has been devastated by a tornado - a moral vaccuum in which sublimely ugly kids scour an extended rubbish dump in search of... well, whatever.

Korine collaborated with French cinematographer Jean-Yves Escoffier, who shot "Les Amants du Pont Neuf", and together they have created a unique film which is filled with both wonder and horror. With an excellent cast of mostly non-actors and a setting that was genuinely hit by a tornado, much of the film’s power comes from its haunting authenticity.

"Gummo" is not always pleasurable to watch and Korine can be accused of slack film-making in terms of engaging an audience in a story. But the film is so extraordinary in so many ways - most notably the oblique intensity of the scenes themselves - that it is easy to forgive him. A colourful and perverse film by a considerable talent.