Be prepared for shocking language and extreme bad behaviour from the youngsters who have found themselves excluded from mainstream English schools and are now at the Mulberry Bush boarding school in Oxfordshire.

This fly on the wall is simply that — a fly on the wall camera crew who film what happens without narration or interaction with those being filmed.

What the viewer gets is an insight into the daily traumas of the troubled youngsters and also the staff who look after them. The children often swear, spit and lash out, while the staff's strongest reaction is to do no more than restrain the youngsters during their worst moments until they have calmed down again.

Some of the scenes are reminiscent of the manic chaos that erupts in 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'.

Mulberry Bush has 40 children and 108 staff to look after them.

Other than what you see on the screen during this 100-minute documentary there is no explanation of who the staff are, what training, experience, competence or success they have had. There is no follow up on how these children develop — either good or bad. And this is where, in my opinion, this documentary fails.

At the half-way point we see one youngster 'graduate' from the boarding school and head off to mainstream education. The poignant moment is captured well, yet we hear no more of how the young boy copes.

It is that lack of follow-through, or information about who these youngsters are, where they have come from and why they act the way they do, that prevents this documentary from being much more than a rubber-neck experience.

Denied any feedback from, or information about, the staff and the children, the viewer remains mostly detached and dispassionate for their respective situations and is left with so many unanswered questions about what this school represents or achieves (if anything).

Having said that, a degree of empathy with the disruptive children is held, an achievement for the film makers, but the overall impression is of a documentary unfinished — lacking direction, focus or genuine insight.

I'd like to believe this school does some good at the end of the day and helps these deeply troubled youngsters to right themselves. But from watching this documentary I am left in the dark.

In an interview, documentary maker Kim Longinotto said she had no intention of making this film, but was persuaded to do so by her producer Roger Graef, who is also on the board of trustees at the school.

** 'Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go' will be screened today at 6.30 p.m. at the Little Theatre and again Friday at 3.45 p.m. at Liberty Theatre.