Highlands movie to open film festival
● Eddie Izzard stars in debut feature film by Edinburgh director
His first experience of the Edinburgh International Film Festival was as a 12-year-old schoolboy in the city.
Now Edinburgh-born director Ninian Doff ’s debut feature has been given the honour of opening the event.
His comedy-horror movie Boyz in the Wood, which stars Eddie Izzard as a deranged Highlands huntsman, will get its European premiere when the red carpet is rolled out at the Festival Theatre on 19 June.
It follows the events which unfold when four teenage trouble-makers find themselves on the run from Izzard’s bloodthirsty character while they are on a Duke of Edinburgh Award course in the remote wilderness.
Newcomers Rian Gordon, Samuel Bottomley, Viraj Juneja and Lewis Gribben, who play the youngsters being hunted down, are joined by Scots stars Kate Dickie, James Cosmo and Kevin Guthrie in the film, which Doff says was aimed at capturing “a very particular Scottish joy, madness and humour”.
Billed as an “anarchic cocktail of generational politics, hip-hop loving farmers, and hallucinogenic rabbit droppings”, Boyz in the Wood has been set to a hip hop soundtrack by Doff, who has made his name as a music director, working with The Chemical Brothers and Graham Coxon.
Opening the festival, which is now in its 73rd year, will bring Doff’s career full circle, from when he joined the Scottish Kids Are Making Movies group at the Filmhouse which got him his own camera and a pass for the festival.
Doff said: “It’s hard to put into words what a huge honour it is for me to have Boyz in the Wood open the Edinburgh International Film Festival. It’s been an incredible journey for me and real tribute to the amazing start I got all those years ago at this very festival.
“I’m from Edinburgh and for my debut film I really wanted to make a film that captured a very particular Scottish joy, madness and humour; and that was also modern, political and forward looking.
“Everybody, both cast and crew, brought so much passion and energy to make this film and it’s going to be very special for it to have its European premiere, not only in my home town, but also at such an important festival.”
EIFF artistic director Mark Adams said: “We’re thrilled to be opening this year’s festival with this vibrant, energetic and wonderfully raucous new film that showcases a wide range of Scottish talent, from rising stars to established performers.”