Director Detlev Buck holds his audience in a headlock throughout his compelling film, Tough Enough, which explores unflinchingly, and without sentiment, the seedy side of Berlin. When 15-year-old Michael’s mother is dumped by her doctor boyfriend, the pair find themselves confined to a boxy apartment, living in a rundown area of inner Berlin. Within hours of starting school, Michael (David Kross) becomes the target of malicious violence that goes well beyond schoolyard bullying.

Michael inhabits a world where gangs demand money from mothers with prams, and violence occurs in crowded streets in broad daylight. After his first beating, Michael seems broken, unable to comprehend the blood that covers his face and drips onto his shirt. He only seems to realise the awful reality of his situation when a classmate, noticing Michael’s shoes have been stolen, starts to tease him about his childish socks.

The film’s strength is the way it incorporates moments of gentleness, which contrast starkly with the otherwise relentless brutality. In one scene Michael helps one of the gang leaders to lift his child’s pram up the steps of the U-Bahn. This image shows how violence has become a parallel life, removed from the reality of day-to-day living in a country of high unemployment and sometimes limited opportunities. The ready acceptance of this duality, both by Michael and the people around him, somehow makes this culture of violence dangerously resilient to change.

Young actor David Kross captures Michael’s dilemma perfectly. Despite his youthful face, he possesses a maturity beyond his years. At times Michael seems an old man, resigned to a life of extortion and beatings. At others, like when he saunters down the street, proud owner of new Nikes and an ipod, he is undoubtedly a child, oblivious to the peril of the situation.

Buck’s portrayal of his characters and their relationships captures a wider, troubled Berlin.