Project Detail

Thorntree

Name: Thorntree
Director: Isaac Knights-Washbourn
Genre: Scottish
Released: 2025
Duration: 87 min

Synopsis

At the end of a secluded Edinburgh street is a four-story building housing formerly homeless men, many of whom have struggled with addiction. Unlike most organisations, this place provides permanent housing where the men can drink inside their flats and live as they choose. On the top floor, Billy and Ronnie's friendship falters due to jealousy. Stevie battles vodka withdrawals before rehab, while Gerry and Donald lead opposing lives on the first floor - Donald relapses as Gerry celebrates two years of sobriety.
Starting at the surface level of alcoholism in an observational style, the men then challenge this label, revealing the human stories beneath. Billy and Ronnie's violence, Stevie’s rehab, Donald’s guilt, and Gerry’s redemption. Confronting these deeper emotional bonds, the men offer a profound exploration of their lives beyond the label of "alcoholic". The intertwined lives of these men reveal the complexity of addiction and how they are trying to move through it by unravelling past traumas.

Details

Year: 2025
Type of project: Features
Running time: 87 min
Director: Isaac Knights-Washbourn 1st Feature
Producer: Nadja Lapcevic
Executive Producer: Sinead Kirwan
Editor: Will Hewitt
Director of Photography: Antonio Pozojevi
Composer: Adrian Leung

Genre

Scottish

Production Status

Post-production

Production Company

Varda Pictures

Nadja Lapcevic
1f2 4 Appin Terrace
EH14 1NN
Edinburgh

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Two hands hold a thread of wool during the process of weaving tartan

The Weavers

Director: Callum McCulloch-Nowlan

Year: 2026

Rob Beaton has been weaving tartan and tweed in the Scottish Borders since he was 14. Now 84, he is Scotland's oldest and longest-serving mill worker, operating 100-year-old traditional shuttle looms. With no apprentice to carry on his craft, the mill where he has worked for over four decades may soon be forced to close. But elsewhere in Scotland, a different story is unfolding. At another mill in Highland Perthshire, a young apprentice is learning the trade, and the ancient rhythms of the looms are being passed to a new generation. Once, Scotland's textile industry employed nearly 75% of the population. Today, that figure stands at just 0.2%. Against the backdrop of that decline, the stories of these two mills paint a portrait of an industry at a crossroads. Through his film, Callum McCulloch-Nowlan celebrates the workers, machines, and spaces of Scotland's weaving tradition, while exploring the urgency of preserving a disappearing craft.