Stealing the Scene

CATRIONA PAUL discovers a wealth of potential talent for the future of Scottish film at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival
 

At the 58th Edinburgh International Film Festival, which closed on Sunday (29 August), The Motorcycle Diaries, Walter Salles’ new feature about the road trip of a young Ernesto “Che” Guevara captured the headlines. Coffee and Cigarettes, Jim Jarmusch’s new feature got its first outing in Scotland, as did Comme une Image (Look at Me) and the European espionage thriller Spy Bound. Far Eastern cinema was well represented by UK debuts of Hero and Untold Scandal. But closer to home, the Scottish contribution to this year’s festival proved native talent may yet steal the scene.

Scottish features made up almost half the nominees for the prestigious Michael Powell Award for Best New British Feature Film. Ken Loach’s Ae Fond Kiss is a love story confronting issues of race set in Glasgow. Eva Birthistle stars as an Irish teacher at a Roman Catholic school and Atta Yaqub is Carem, a young Asian DJ, who respects his parents and his community but is finding tradition at odds with desire. Loach’s third film to be set in Glasgow, (fourth if you count Carla’s Song), proving there’s something about the city and its people that helps make great films.

Just down the water, Dear Frankie is set in Greenock, written by Andrea Gibb, (whose film Afterlife won last year’s Standard Life Audience Award), and directed by Shona Auerbach. It tells the story of a single mum Lizzie, (Emily Mortimer), who regularly writes to her son Frankie (Jack McElhone), pretending to be the boy’s absent father. Handsome Gerard Butler is drafted into the make believe when the truth threatens to come out. Despite lines verging on sentimental and an unconvincing end, Dear Frankie is a gentle and engaging film with solid performances and beautifully composed scenes.

From love victorious to more freaky circumstances, gothic melodrama / thriller Blinded, (reviewed by HI~Arts at its premiere in Dundee at the Celtic Film and TV Festival), directed by Eleanor Yule, was also nominated for the Best New British Feature and boasted a strong cast led by Peter Mullan.

Also in competition, The Purifiers is Richard Jobson’s second feature following the success of the semi-autobiographical 16 Years of Alcohol and is a futuristic thriller in which gangs fight it out kung fu style for dominance in a nameless Scottish city.

Completing the award’s line-up, is Yasmin a thought-provoking drama in which an English Muslim woman finds her race becoming an issue post September 11. The low-level discrimination amongst friends and co-workers, attitudes of macho Muslim men, radio and TV coverage of the terrorist attack all prompting a re-evaluation of her identity and culture.

Despite the strong Scottish show, director Pawel Pawlikovwski scooped the Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature with My Summer of Love a beautiful, trippy film about an intriguing friendship with a dynamic all of its own. With outstanding performances from leads Natalie Press and Emily Blunt and with strong support from Paddy Considine, watch out for its release, hopefully later this year.

Scottish films elsewhere in the programme included a documentary featuring Aberdeen-born Evelyn Glennie, Touch the Sound in which the deaf musician goes in search of new sources of sound. There was also a major retrospective of the films of Orcadian Margaret Tait (see separate review). However, perhaps of greatest significance to the future of film-making in Scotland, the collections of short films and short documentaries showed great talent and promise.

In the Cineworks programme, Milk by Peter Mackie Burns is an intriguing snapshot of a relationship between grandmother and granddaughter. Quite a coup to find well-known actresses Brenda Fricker and Kathleen McDermott taking on the roles in this genuine first by Burns. The Tree Officer was an animated delight by writer/director Neil Jack that could easily be shown on TV, (think crowd pleasing like Creature Comforts). Let’s hope that those who programme our TV get round to seeing it.

Further original film-making could also be found in the Tartan Shorts collection, the New Found Land programme and the short documentaries selected for the Saltire Society Grierson Award, this last category won by Jim Hickey’s And So Goodbye. All of these films send a welcome message to wannabe film-makers here in Scotland – it can be done.

Whilst the EIFF’s international haul of films might have captured the headlines, home-grown features and shorts may prove to be the real story worth writing about. This year’s selection of work proves that the film industry is flourishing in Scotland: voices and visions discovered and encouraged, films impressive and inspiring, creativity alive and well.

© Catriona Paul, 2004