ALTHOUGH it landed a couple of notable film awards on its release in 1990, Ultra arrived far too soon after Hillsborough the year before to have made much impact in this country.

Now available on DVD, it feels more like a history lesson than the smudged mirror held up to a sick society of the time.

The story follows The Poison Brigade, a hardcore group of Roma supporters, as they make their way to Turin for a meeting with their Juventus rivals. One of the band is about to get married, go straight and get a job – but football violence isn’t something you can just turn off.

A chillingly convincing portrait of the kind of hooliganism that resulted in the deaths of 39 Juventus fans in Heysel.