GFF 2011: International Affairs

“One of the guiding philosophies for the festival has always been that we would bring the best of world cinema to Glasgow, and show the best of Scottish cinema to the eyes of the world. And that’s particularly true of one of the special events at this year’s festival. It’s a big home-town world premiere for a film from one of the most prolific and accomplished directors working in Scotland, from a company that in Glasgow, and in Scotland, is pivotal to the filmmaking of this country.”

So said Glasgow Film Festival co-director Allan Hunter at the launch of this year’s festival. The film Allan was referring to is You Instead, the director is David Mackenzie and the company is Sigma Films, a production house that has been creating daring cinema in Scotland, and with its international partners, for fifteen years.

Founded in 1996 by Mackenzie, his brother Alastair and Gillian Berrie, Sigma have produced over 25 films, from their first collaboration, short film Wanting and Getting, to the upcoming Perfect Sense, which stars Scottish favourites Ewan MacGregor and Ewen Bremner, and French beauty Eva Green. Both are set in Glasgow and are directed by David Mackenzie, but in-between these bookends the company have gained a reputation for its international collaborations.

The most famous of these partnerships is the one forged with Danish maverick Lars Von Trier, and his production company Zentropa. Together the two created the Scottish-Danish Advance Party project. A proposed trilogy, the series began with the release of Andrea Arnold's Dogme 95-inspired Red Road, which blended Danish filmmaking zeitgeist with gritty Glasgow locations. The project aims for every film to be made by a first-time director, filmed and set in Scotland, using the same characters and cast. Red Road was followed up late last year with Morag McKinnon's black comedy Donkeys, which also premiered here in Scotland.

To celebrate Sigma's considerable achievements, we choose our three favourites Sigma collaborations.

Dogville (2003) - Out goes the realism of Dogme 95 and in comes the alienating artifice of Brecht as Lars Von Trier strips back his set design (the film is shot on an empty soundstage with chalk outlines for buildings and props) to expose mankind's capacity for cruelty. Grace, a young, seemingly fragile woman (played by Nicole Kidman at her brittle best) seeks refuge in a Rocky Mountain township, only to be subjected to horrible abuses. It’s Von Trier’s audacious and electrifying masterpiece.

Red Road (2006) - Debuting director Andrea Arnold imagines the titular North Glasgow estate as a litter strewn dystopia, where the population are as feral as the fetid foxes that roam the area. Blending British social realism with the voyeuristic thrill of Hitchcock, it’s as tense and unsettling as cinema gets. Kate Dickie is a revelation as the film’s troubled CCTV operator protagonist, Jackie.

Hallam Foe (2007) - A delightful oddity from Sigma founder David Mackenzie. Hallam Foe is a Peeping Tom with an Odipus complex. In any other film he’d be the villain but it’s hard not to root for the little perv, who’s charmingly played by Jamie Bell. The city of Edinburgh has never looked better as Foe scampers across its rickety rooftops to get a peek at the woman / substitute mother he’s fallen for. Like Mackenzie’s previous films, it’s a masterclass in mood, but Foe gets the edge for its effortless footloose verve.