Andrew Haigh is not one to shy from painful emotion in his films and Lean on Pete is no exception. Adapted from Willy Vlautin’s eponymous novel, this is a story of a boy and his horse; well, not his horse exactly, but we’ll get to that later.

Neither the book nor the film are that familiar feel-good tale in which boy and horse save each other (as in War Horse or The Black Stallion), nor is the film exactly a coming-of-age story, for the lad remains a little boy lost until the very end. It is a story of struggle and survival and of the boy’s desperate search for a family. The boy in question is Charley (Charlie Plummer), a teen who loves to run and who lives with his charming ne’er do well dad Ray (Travis Fimmel) in a cockroach-infested house in Portland. Charley sports a T-shirt from Spokane and we soon learn that he and his dad often up sticks and move on to new towns. He often takes out well-thumbed photos of his childhood and we learn that there was an Aunt Margey, with whom Ray fell out. Ray lives hand to mouth and likes the ladies, which ultimately lands him in hospital when a disgruntled husband comes knocking.

On one of his runs, Charley has discovered a stable and it is here that he meets Del (Steve Buscemi). Del looks like he could have surrogate dad potential, as he admonishes the boy for his table manners and sets him to work. So when Ray is hospitalised, this is when we think Del will take over with the fathering duties. But it is not to be. Charley discovers that the racing world is a tough, unromantic place: horses that are injured or losers are dispatched to Mexico and it seems that humans are treated little better. Del’s jockey Bonnie (Chloe Sevigny) warns Charley not to view the horses as pets and lists her many falls and injuries. Her own mother, herself a jockey, sounds as tough on Bonnie as Del is on his horses. One of those is Lean on Pete, who Charley dotes on. When Lean on Pete is slated to be sent to Mexico to be turned into dog meat, Charley leaps into action. The boy who runs is now on the run.

Haigh has stated that he was interested in films like Paris, Texas and there are clear visual parallels in the vast expanse of the desert as Charley and his horse traipse through the countryside with the wide-open skies above them. There are also emotional parallels with that heart-wrenching film for Charley’s journey does not lead to salvation for the pair. We see him starving and homeless, a dirty, forgotten boy. Will his story end the way of so many lost teens or will he find the home he has craved?

Haigh has crammed in so many stories in this boy’s short life that it is hard to keep up. It’s also a little hard to believe as he manages to run from the authorities whenever they come close to taking him in and handing him over to social services. And it is hard to believe that a story this tragic can end well. However, the cast is excellent, with the young Charlie Plummer holding the film together with his nuanced performance.