Festival event marks debut for McGregor
ACTOR Ewan McGregor is to present his directorial debut at a gala screening for the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF).
McGregor will be present on November 2 at the screening of American Pastoral, based on the feted novel by Philip Roth.
The screening will take place at the Filmhouse.
Mark Adams, artistic director at the EIFF, said: “We are delighted to be working with Entertainment Film Distributors and Ewan McGregor on this special Edinburgh International Film Festival Gala of American Pastoral.
“Ewan is a great supporter of the festival, and talked with enthusiasm about making his directorial debut with the film when he was with us in 2015, so it is a real pleasure to welcome him and the film back to Edinburgh.”
McGregor marked his first appearance in 1994 at the EIFF for Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave.
He has returned to the festival on several occasions with Velvet Goldmine, Young Adam, Perfect Sense, and most recently Last Days in the Desert, when he also gave a sold-out, 90-minute, in-person Q&A event.
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Phillip Roth novel, American Pastoral follows a family whose seemingly idyllic existence is shattered by the social and political turmoil of the 1960s.
McGregor makes his directorial debut and stars as Seymour “Swede” Levov, a legendary high school athlete now a successful businessman married to Dawn, an ex-beauty queen.