Projects in genres: Scottish

Synopsis

Set in a steamy Glasgow of the early 1950s, the film focuses on the existential crisis of Joe (Ewan McGregor), a rootless young drifter who finds work on a barge owned by the down-to-earth Les (Peter Mullan) and his enigmatic wife Ella (Tilda Swinton). One afternoon Joe and Les happen upon a corpse of a young woman floating in the water. Accident? Suicide? Murder? As the police investigate the case and a suspect is arrested, it becomes evident that Joe knows more about the drowned woman than he is letting on. Meanwhile, against the background of this mysterious death and the 'murder' investigation, Joe and Ella embark on an intimate and passionate affair.   Tim Cumming, writing in The Guardian, 8 August 2003: Alexander Trocchi was the smack-addled icon of beat literature, whose writings have been eclipsed by a lurid life of porn, pimping and dissolution in New York, Paris and London. But with a new film out adapted from his novel Young Adam, the Glasgow-born writer's life and work are ripe for re-evaluation.    

Synopsis

Frantic knockabout tragedy as Bobo is sent to clown prison for a daring but silly crime and must escape to try and prevent his family from bringing shame on all clowndom.

Synopsis

Set amongst the high rise estates of Glasgow, the home of many recently arrived asylum seekers as part of the government's dispersal programme. The drama begins during an apparently commonplace winter flu epidemic. But doctors are puzzled by the strange symptoms of this flu and cannot understand why it is only affecting a relatively small cross-section of the community. One asylum support unit worker is not satisfied by the flu argument and wonders if environmental health hazards are to blame. But when one man dies, the post mortem results reveal the shocking truth - the deadly germ anthrax killed him. But even in the face of this evidence, the authorities are unwilling to believe what is becoming increasingly obvious - that north Glasgow has been subject to a silent and deadly terrorist attack. Someone has deliberately released anthrax amongst the immigrant community and the panic both inside and outside the hospital is mounting fast. Central to the drama is a Kurdish refugee, Sherko, and his 12 year old daughter, Resa. Sherko remembers the full horror of being gassed in northern Iraq by Saddam Hussein and now watches in horror as his daughter succumbs to the deadly infection.

Synopsis

A young mother's trust in mankind is challenged when she decides to help a stranger while on a long car journey through the barren landscape of her conflicting emotions and perceptions.

Synopsis

Charlie is on a stupid mission of revenge against the Popstar who stole his wife. Vincente is on the run, trying to get away from the country to escape a contract castration ordered by the man who caught him in bed with his wife. Charlie is probably the only person mad enough to give Vincente a lift to the remote Scottish airfield where he plans to fly to Spain. From now on, little is certain as these two lost souls get more lost on their journey to their own private wilderness.

Synopsis

Scotland, present day. In love with two women, drug dependent Jonnie Condor escapes the city life with voluptuous Jackie Fox. They drive into the wilds of snowy Scotland and search for happiness in time-warped Happy Valley. Jonnie tries to convince Jackie to love him, but she is not interested in his changing moods and silent pauses, and deserts him for someone her own age. Jonnie's search for an inner paradise is put on hold as he struggles to find new direction in the wild landscape. Frustrated and defeated, he meets refined Katrina Quiver who immediately leads him on a new journey of self-understanding. Camped in the high mountains she eases his over-burdened mind and begins to make him understand that his delusions are destroying him. She begins to teach him that he must live for the moment, but he pines to return to Happy Valley and his lost past. They return to Happy Valley, but it is a mistake, and they drift back to the fringes of civilisation where they fall out. In a moment of clarity, Jonnie gives up his drug addiction and vows to accept Katrina's leadership.

Synopsis

Morvern Callar is a 21 year old supermarket worker from a small port town in the west of Scotland. Morvern believes that life is something you get on with as best you can with what you've got. One morning Morvern finds that what she's got is a dead boyfriend on the kitchen floor.

Synopsis

Liam's mum, Jean, is in prison but should be out in time for his 16th birthday. This time Liam is determined that things will be different. He dreams of a family life he's never had, which means creating a safe haven beyond the reach of wasters like Jean's boyfriend Stan and his own mean-spirited Grandfather. But first he's got to raise the cash - no mean feat for a skint teenager. It's not long before Liam and his pals' crazy schemes lead them into all sorts of trouble. Finding himself dangerously out of his depth, Liam knows he should walk away. Only this time, he just can't let go.

Synopsis

Harry Gillespie, bookeeper for gangsters, pimps and drug barons, hides out on a Scottish island after he has escaped his former life by taking money from his 'employer'. Harry escapes with his girlfriend, Ebony, who discovers it is only a matter of time before Harry is found and dealt with by a series of killers who come to make amends. Harry is more than they bargained for and he even surprises himself when he makes sure that none of his pursuers return to the mainland.

Synopsis

Oscar Slater lived in Glasgow at the turn of the century. A petty criminal, gambler and in all likelihood a pimp. Also a German and a Jew. He spent twenty years in Peterhead jail, after being found guilty of a murder, now believed to have been carried out by members of Glasgow's professional classes.

Synopsis

The Magdalene Asylums in Ireland were run by the Sisters of Mercy on behalf of the Catholic Church. Young girls were sent there by families or orphanages and once there, were imprisoned and sent to work in the laundries where they could atone for their sins. Their sins varied from being unmarried mothers to being too pretty, too ugly, simple minded, too clever or being a victim of rape and talking about it. And for their sins they worked 364 days a year unpaid, they were half starved, beaten, humiliated, raped, their children forcibly removed from them. Their sentence was indefinite. Thousands of women lived and died there. The last Magdalene Asylum in Ireland closed in 1996, five years ago. This film is from the point of view of four of these young women in the 1960s, an era mistakenly seen by some as a time of unchallenged female liberation. These young Catholic women find themselves in an almost medieval nightmare whilst the outside world tacitly (or in some cases actively) supports a theocratic state. It looks at how their personalities develop for better and for worse in an environment controlled and dominated by celibate women, servants of God, Brides of Christ. In their own ways the girls refuse to be beaten, but what victory is there if they remain imprisoned as little more than slaves? One gets out in a heartbreakingly banal fashion, one is imprisoned in a mental asylum, two finally rebel, run away, escape. It is a fictional film that unfortunately happens to be true.

Synopsis

An unusual love story between a young Glaswegian male carer and an elderly Japanese lady. From their mundane council estate lives blossoms an inspirational exchange of experience, culture and romance, crossing the boundaries of time, place, generations and imaginations.