World films shine at Hebridean festival
Winners of top prizes at Cannes and a contender for next year’s Oscars sit alongside short films from Lewis and many others in this year’s Hebrides International Film Festival, taking place throughout the islands from Wednesday to Saturday this week.
This year’s films include Iranian drama Lerd – A Man of Integrity, which won the Un Certain Regard Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and American film The Rider, which won the Directors’ Fortnight Art Cinema Award – again, from Cannes.
The Un Certain Regard Award is given to the best high-quality film that resists easy classification, as they tell their stories in non-traditional ways.
Lerd is about a gold fish farmer in a village in northern Iran, whose attempts to make an honest living come up against a corrupt system, where money and power beat environmental concerns.
American drama The Rider tells the story of a rodeo star who faces a bleak future being unable to ride again, after a devastating accident.
Another award-winning film on this year’s programme is What Will People Say. Set in Norway and Pakistan, it traces how a Pakistani immigrant family deals with its teenage daughter’s affair with a local boy in Norway – taking her back to Pakistan and portraying the cultural shift between the two countries.
The core of the festival is the screening of current environmental documentary features – Blue from Australia, A Plastic Ocean, A River Below about pink dolphins in the Amazon and many more.
Leave No Trace is another film with a strong political message, about a father and daughter trying to live off grid in the forests of Oregon but being frustrated from doing so by social services.
These are among the ‘big ticket’ films, the ones from the best of current world cinema. However, there are other films in the programme which are much more local.
Two of the shorts – Cianalas and MS, Mexico and Me: Aileen’s Story – come from Lewis and the film festival is also showing Mar a Thachair Do Dh’fhear a Sgur a Dhol Eaglais, winner of the FilmG award 2018, and Fish in the Sea, a documentary about sustainable fishing in Scotland.
Cianalas, by Zoe Paterson Macinnes, was chosen because it focuses on a sense of belonging to the place, while MS, Mexico and Me tells the story of Aileen Hunt who travelled from her home in Uig to Mexico for stem cell treatment, in a bid to halt the progression of multiple sclerosis.
Only films made within the last three years are eligible to be included in the programme and must fit within the festival’s broad theme of ‘islands, environmental issues and indigenous peoples’.
Lovers of outdoor pursuits are catered for. Feature film Mountain has been celebrated for its beautiful cinematography and musical score, while short film Under An Arctic Sky follows a group of surfers as they catch waves against the backdrop of the Aurora Borealis.
There is a particular focus on the ‘ocean’ theme this year – and a look at the plastic pollution crisis – but the programme always includes a variety of genres, so there is art, comedy and children’s film as well as drama and documentary.
The programme of around 26 features and 13 short films are on the festival’s website.