WITH youth culture being intensely scrutinised in Britain following the riots and the recent tragic events in Norway, Danish drama In A Better World couldn't come at a more appropriate time.

Susanne Bier's Oscar-winning film is a gripping and beautifully constructed human drama about conflict and the power of forgiveness.

Anton (Mikael Persbrandt) is a doctor who splits time between his home in an idyllic town in Denmark and his work at an African refugee camp.

Seperated from his wife and struggling to be a father figure to his two sons, Anton is torn between two very different worlds.

Meanwhile his son Elias (Markus Rygaard) is being badly bullied at school.

When new boy Christian (William Johnk Nielsen) comes to his aid the pair quickly form a strong alliance.

But Elias's new friend is deeply troubled himself, grieving after the death of his mother and blaming his father Claus for her long, painful battle with cancer.

Christian's rage leads him to embroil Elias in a dangerous revenge plot.

With both their parents preoccupied with their own personal gripes, their guidance proves innefectual and the boys soon find themselves in over their heads.

The film's two young leads give startling performances and their relationship is instantly recognisable of those uneasy alliances formed at school.

Beautifully shot, the film's patterns of coincidence and correspondence are neat - Anton finds the tackling-the-bully dilemma relevant in his refugee camp; Anton and Christian's father both find they are not sufficiently present in their sons' lives – but also that they cannot necessarily be blamed.

Although it borders on soap opera melodrama at times and slams its ideas home a little too hard, In A Better World is poignant, moving and a well executed warning against violence as a means of conflict resolution.

In A Better World (15) is out today.