Sums For Beginners

Do you know how much it costs to keep a family of asylum seekers in Dungavel detention centre for a year? Do you know how much it would cost to keep the same family in a council flat, on state benefits? What else could that money pay for? Sums For Beginners takes a look at the figures nd comes up with some astonishing results.

Presented as a parody of a schools' television programme, complete with chirpy presenter and cheerfully coloured animation, this film achieves a nice balancing act in educating its audience without being unduly patronising. It's knowingly twee and uses this to its advantage, reminding us of a time when sums like this were difficult to understand and emphasising how simple they ought to be. To what extent are we allowing ourselves to be treated like children by the government? Sums For Beginners isn't shy about its accusations, but neither is it stultifyingly heavy-handed. Its energetic attitude and delightfully accurate characterisation (especially its cute little hoover tax monster) keep it entertaining throughout. Like a real school programme, it feels empowering and fun, even though what it has to say ought to leave us feeling angry.

Only towards the end, in its depiction of the US firm which runs Dungavel, does Sums For Beginners lose its cool and risk coming across as spiteful rather than justifiably annoyed. This is an unfortunate lapse in an otherwise impressively slick piece of work. It's not the most emotive of films, despite dealing with an emotive subject, but overall it does a very good job of presenting the facts and making sure you'll remember them.