Scheme Birds

“If you stay here, you either get knocked up or locked up.” Gemma never experienced those notorious good times once found in the former thriving Scottish industrial town of Motherwell. When she was born in 1997, the factories had already been torn down, the steel ovens no longer burned and as the skies were turning grey, her drug-addicted mother had left. In a place without prospects, everybody battles frustration in their individual way. Gemma, nonetheless, feels comfortable in this place, roaming the streets with the neighbourhood’s tough guys while her grandfather, who took her in as a baby, is trying to keep these youths on the right track offering a sanctuary at his boxing gym. When Gemma’s already tough everyday existence leads her from childhood to motherhood, her life begins to derail even further. Director duo Ellen Fiske and Ellinor Hallin accompanied the working-class teenager over several years to create a unique portrait in the form of a coming-of-age documentary.