The Macphail Centre, Ullapool, 2 February 2012

ON A visit to the cinema we usually have more interaction with the person selling us popcorn than we do with those who actually made the film.

SO FOR actor-writer-producer Tim Barrow to stand up in front of an audience and invite feedback on his 2007 film The Inheritance was an act of almost gladiatorial bravery.

The Inheritance crew after the final shoot

The film is a rather gritty tale of two brothers making a journey to the Highlands in the wake of their father’s death. It is a road movie in which the only redeeming presence is majestic scenery. The human characters argue, drink and eat copious amounts of junk food much in the manner we have come to expect from a genre of film identified by film-maker Eleanor Yule as Scottish Miserablism. The palette of emotions is a grim, monochromatic one where expletives and hand to hand combat are the only modes of expression on offer. Love and laughter are in short supply.

Indeed had it not been for Barrow’s bold and engaging presence, the evening could have been overshadowed by a feeling of despondency about the state of the nation; whereby the Scottish image is a grim one drawn within hard, statistical parameters and within which those who do not endure ongoing ill health, addiction problems or a proclivity to violence are rendered invisible.

Barrow remains proud of is debut offering and says he is always happy to see the film in the company of a new audience. He said, “When we make films we are not being like Switzerland by sitting on the fence being neutral. We like to provoke response.”

In The MacPhail Centre, there was fairly unanimous response to the piece which was, indeed, far from neutral. While many despaired of the subject matter, there was admiration for what had been achieved on a shoestring budget of just £5,000.

However, the original response to the film, on the part of prize givers and festival organisers, was so enthusiastic that the core creative team has been able to continue their careers and keep the work coming. Their latest offering, The Space Between, is ,by all accounts, an upbeat love story.

So will all their endeavours be influenced by the audience feedback the team has actively sought since the film was first shown in public? Barrow said, “The practicalities of making a film are such that things have to be clear or extreme. All we are concerned with in the edit suite is finding the best sequence of images in order to tell an engaging story.”

Happily for the more sensitive film fans amongst us, here are signs that optimism in home grown films may be about to make an onscreen comeback. Barrow says, “I admit that our work was a bit rough and raw at first. That aspect of life was one that we kind of had to express but now we are moving on.”

© Jenny McBain, 2012

Links

• The Inheritance