Shane Meadow’s gripping revenge thriller begins almost serenely. Two men walking purposefully over moorland, intercut with home movie footage of them as children.

The older man is Richard (Paddy Considine), returning to his hometown in the Peak District, having served as a paratrooper in the British army. The younger is his mentally challenged brother Anthony (Toby Kebbell), tormented and abused by a group of local drug dealers in Richards absence. Arriving at an abandoned farmhouse where they set up base, the opening dialogue is a calm but chilling voice-over spoken by Richard “God will forgive them. He’ll forgive them and allow them into heaven. I can’t live with that”.

Venturing into town, Richard makes contact with the gang, led by Sonny (Gary Stretch), who are left in no doubt he is back to avenge his brothers treatment at their hands. Using his military training, he starts a campaign of psychological warfare that swiftly escalates into violent bloody retribution.

Paddy Considine, who co-wrote the screenplay with Meadows, gives a brilliantly intense performance as the disaffected ex-soldier. Menacing and in complete control when dealing with his enemies but also tender and remorseful when engaging with the brother he feels he has failed. Filmed in just 3 weeks in the summer of 2003, this is a film elevated above your average run of the mill revenge movie by its leading actors and a superior script that takes a tragic twist at the end.

Shane Meadows would have a breakthrough hit with his follow up film ‘This is England’ two years later but it was ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ that confirmed his place as a leading player in British independent cinema.