Writer and Director: Aylin Tezel Showing as part of the annual Raindance Festival of independent films in London’s West End, this romantic drama is a sometimes sentimental, sometimes bleak odyssey that divides screen time between the Isle of Skye, where our protagonists meet, and London, where they spend much of the movie apart. There are some interesting elements here, if you can get past the opening scenes, which feature the kind of cutesy putative relationship that only happens in the movies, complete with silly games, cod philosophy and noisy friends who only exist to provide an unconvincing social backdrop. It’s…
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Writer and Director: Isabelle Caps-Kuhn Gwen (Sina Genschel) and Adam (Julius Nitschkoff) are a mismatched couple. Gwen is studious and her work of such a calibre she is employed as a teaching assistant while awaiting a place at a prestigious university to continue her studies. Adam has just returned from a three-year ’journey of discovery’ and although he speaks vaguely of studying photography no-one thinks he is serious. Adam is the life and soul of the party while Gwen hides in the kitchen. An acquaintance in a polygamous relationship explains to Gwen having an open relationship offers a different perspective…
Writers: Richard Baron and Ellie Zeegen Director: Richard Baron Sometimes, particularly when covering a piece so entuned with the life of one of Scotland’s most celebrated writers of prose and verse, there’s a temptation to go toe-to-toe with the quality of their vocab and reputation. But the truth is that Richard Baron and Ellie Zeeghen’s Nan Shepherd: Naked and Unashamed is quite simply put, lovely. Time is a breeze here, flowing rapidly through the Pitlochry studio, catching the audience as rustles, carrying them along the journey of Aberdeenshire-born Nan Shepherd, who would quite possibly be immensely puzzled at the prospect…
Book: Douglas McGrath Words and Music: Gerry Goffin & Carole King, Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil Director: Sam Hardie The soundtrack of one generation to the next, and striding forth even further, singer and songwriter Carole King forged her path from an early age and away from the expectations laid upon her and in the face of obstacles. Laid bare for the Pitlochry audience, their Scottish staging of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical steps into the sunlight with a breathtakingly sincere leading performance, crafting a touching production of the biopic and leading it away from the tropes associated with jukebox musicals. Quite rightly at the…
Directors Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck Grief is an intensely personal experience and the ways in which we come to terms with loss are equally subjective. Such loss may be eased by mementos such as photographs, and some people even construct shrines to the departed – leaving their rooms unaltered. There are also those willing to exploit the situation- spiritualists offering, for a fee, to provide a link to the afterlife. Technological developments already throw up a range of unexpected challenges – concern about if it is disrespectful to delete voice recordings of the deceased. Eternal You, a documentary from…
Writers Christopher Murray and Pablo Paredes Director Christopher Murray A nineteenth-century colonial setting allows writer/director Christopher Murray to take an unusual approach to a tale of revenge / quest for identity in Sorcery. Although thirteen-year-old Rosa (Valentina Véliz Caileo) and her father are indigenous to the remote Chilean island of Chiloé they have embraced the customs and Christian beliefs of the German colonisers and work for the settlers, farming sheep. However, they become collateral damage in an ongoing conflict between the settlers and Recta Provincia (The Righteous Province) a group of indigenous locals seeking to repel the colonisers. The farmer’s…
Directors: Phil Grabsky and Ali Ray The National Gallery, London, holds one of the greatest collections of paintings in the world. When the Gallery was founded in 1824, it held just 38 paintings from the private art collection of the banker John Julius Angerstein. The collection has grown considerably over the last two centuries and today, holds over 2,300 works, spanning the major traditions of Western European painting. So often the stories we hear from this incredible collection are of the paintings themselves, what they depict, who painted them and why. In this new documentary, My National Gallery, the gallery…
Writer: Lewis Grassic Gibbon Adaptor: Morna Young Director: Finn den Hertog This co-production by Dundee Rep Theatre and the Royal Lyceum Theatre has played to audiences in Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness, and is now showing in Edinburgh. A fresh take on the classic Scottish novel, it tells the story of a young woman’s coming of age in rural Aberdeenshire in the years prior to, and through, the first world war. The iconic role of Chris Guthrie is played by rising star Danielle Jam. We see the seasons come and go in a timeless way, yet life is changing rapidly. The…