I swear OmdU

I Swear
Directed by Kirk Jones
Starring Maxine Peake, Shirley Henderson, Robert Aramayo, Peter Mullan
No one could have predicted that an uncontrollable 'problem child' would one day be awarded the Order of the British Empire - least of all John Davidson himself. In the early 1980s, John (Scott Ellis Watson) is growing up in a small Scottish town when, at the age of 12, he begins to suffer from severe nervous tics. With the onset of a condition that would only be diagnosed as Tourette's syndrome years later, his life becomes an endless gauntlet. Neither at school nor at home are his tics and spontaneous outbursts of swearing seen as symptoms; instead, he is reprimanded, teased and even punished. Almost 15 years later, John (Robert Aramayo), now in his mid-20s, is still living with his mother (Shirley Henderson). He is taking such strong medication that the side effects are robbing him of almost all his will to live. A chance encounter with his school friend Murray and his mother Dottie (Maxine Peak) finally brings a turning point. Dottie is a nurse and accepts John just as he is. She takes him into her family and even finds him a job as assistant to the community center caretaker Tommy (Peter Mullan). A ludicrous job interview, during which Tommy reacts to John's tics and swearing like no one else, lays the foundation for a close friendship between the two.