EIFF 2017: Scottish films announced

For the past few years, Edinburgh International Film Festival has chosen to bookend its annual event with Scottish-made features, such as Robert Carlyle's directorial debut The Legend of Barney Thomson (the 2015 opener) or the recent Whisky Galore! remake (last year’s closing film). This year, however, the gala films look towards different portraits of life in Northern England, from gay sheep farming romance God’s Own Country to Morrissey biopic England is Mine. The festival hasn’t forgotten the homegrown films, however.

“Scottish talent has always been at the heart of the festival,” says EIFF director Mark Adams, “and I am thrilled to once again illuminate the great work that currently exists within the country. The quality, variety and breadth of this year’s programme is a true testament to the high-level of craftsmanship in past and present Scottish film.” 

Documentaries

We can certainly confirm variety and breadth, with an eclectic mix of documentaries, narrative films and less easily classifiable features included in the Scottish talent lineup, which was announced today. And we can assume we'll find quality in Teenage Superstars, given that it’s the sequel to Big Gold Dream, one of the gems of EIFF’s 2015 edition. That earlier film was a vibrant celebration of Scotland’s indie music scene from 1977 to 1985. Teenage Superstars begins where Big Golden Dream left off with an examination of Scottish music from the late 80s to the dawn of Britpop.

Another documentary option that looks particularly rich is Donkeyote, from Spanish filmmaker Chico Pereira, who made the excellent Pablo's Winter. This new fiction-doc hybrid, produced by the Scottish Documentary Institute, sees Pereira follow his eccentric uncle Manolo on an epic journey on foot with his donkey Sparrow, and it sounds like there will be some nods to Cervantes along the way.

Another music doc will turn up in the programme in the form of The Groove is Not Trivial, which follows Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser. There’s also Andy Goldsworthy’s doc Leaning into the Wind, which we’re told follows the artist “on his exploration of the world and himself through ephemeral and permanent workings on the landscape, cities and with his own body.”

Narrative films

In terms of narrative films, we’re keen to see Daphne, the debut feature from Peter Mackie Burns, which follows a young woman (played by Emily Beecham) who goes off the rails after witnessing a random act of violence. The Hollywood Reporter described the film, quite tantalisingly, as “Looking for Mr. Goodbar meets Kenneth Lonergan's Margaret on the streets of 21st century London.” Burns first made a splash on the film scene with his wonderful short film Milk, which won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at Berlin Film Festival back in 2005, so we’re keen to finally see him work at feature-length.

Fresh from Cannes will come Bong Joon-ho’s genre-jumping Okja, the story of a girl and her genetically modified pet that looks part puppy dog, part pachyderm. What’s the Scottish connection, you might ask? The film’s villain is of course Tilda Swinton, the nation’s finest acting export. Talking of Hollywood talent, Danny Huston directs and stars in The Last Photograph, a drama revolving around the Lockerbie disaster. This will be Huston’s first time behind the camera since his mid-90s Burt Reynolds-Angie Dickinson turkey The Maddening – let’s hope his directing skills have improved since then.

Another feature film that should catch locals’ eye is Reichenbach Falls, which is based on a short story by Ian Rankin and stars John Hannah as a cop investigating a 100-year-old murder that takes him back to the dark Jekyll and Hyde underworld of Edinburgh’s literary past. Waterboys is another Edinburgh-set option, while Edie and The Dark Mile offer rural pleasures. The former is set against the beautiful backdrop of Suilven Mountain and stars Sunset Song's Kevin Guthrie. The latter, meanwhile, is a psychological thriller set in the Scottish Highlands, which finds a couple’s trip on a canal boat descend into a hellish ordeal; EIFF describes it as “Deliverance meets Rosemary’s Baby.”

Classic films

You’ll find Scotland’s greatest movie star, Sean Connery, in a brace of 1981 films in the Future Is History retrospective: muscular space western Outlander and Terry Gilliam’s hilarious fantasy film Time Bandits. If you’re after classic homegrown sci-fi, however, look no further than Bertrand Tavernier’s cinematic Death Watch. Making expressive use of its Glasgow setting, it follows Harvey Keitel as a scurrilous journalist who goes so far as to have cameras implanted in his eyes so he can surreptitiously capture a terminally ill woman (Romy Schneider)’s death on television. The film gave Robbie Coltrane an early role, and he also turns up in retrospective films Mona Lisa and Scrubbers.

Shorts

There’ll be the usual mix of shorts from emerging Scottish filmmakers peppered throughout the programme. In particular, don’t miss the Scottish Film Talent Network lineup, which is “designed to discover, nurture and advance new and emerging filmmaking talent from across the UK.” Shorts this year include drama Creeling, period drama 1745, psychological drama Close to the Bone, animations Nothing to Declare and Spindrift, and fantasy The Inescapable Arrival of Lazlo Petushki.

Jonathan Demme – Stop Making Sense

No Scottish connection as far as we can see, but there’s a very welcome showing of Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense, which is playing EIFF to mark the recent death of the great American filmmaker Jonathan Demme. There’ll be two screenings in fact: the first will take place in the courtyard at Summerhall, as part of a live music event featuring a host of local bands (23 Jun); the second screening will be at Filmhouse, offering a rare chance to see this much loved film on the big screen (29 Jun).