Ahead of its full programme launch on July 6, the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) has announced that its opening film will be Silent Roar by first-time Scottish director Johnny Barrington.
Shot entirely on location on Lewis and billed by EIFF as “a teenage tale of surfing, sex and hellfire”, it tells the story of Dondo, a young surfer grieving the recent loss of his father at sea who falls in with Sas, a rebellious girl in his class at school. When a Minister arrives on the island, Dondo begins to experience strange visions.
Louis McCartney and Ella Lily Hyland star, and the film is produced by Skye-based Young Films, run by Scottish film veteran Chris Young and the company behind The Inbetweeners Movie. Extra backing came from Screen Scotland, BBC Films and the British Film Institute, and the score is by acclaimed composer Hannah Peel.
“I’m delighted for Silent Roar to have its world premiere at EIFF, and start its life from a festival and a city so close to my heart,” said Mr Barrington. “The film is a fun ride into surfing, death and the cosmos and awkward high school memories from the 1990s. The shoot was the best time of my life, with the best cast and crew in the world sweating creative blood … What formed is a story well wadded with ineffable nonsense, tears and laughter.”
Last year’s EIFF also opened with a debut feature from a young Scottish director – Charlotte Wells’s Aftersun, which later picked up an Oscar nomination – but Mr Barrington’s work is also notable for signalling the return of the festival itself.
In October 2022 the charity body which ran the EIFF, the Centre for the Moving Image (CMI), went into administration throwing the future of the EIFF into question and forcing the closure of the Filmhouse cinema as well as its sister venue in Aberdeen, the Belmont.
Both cinemas remain closed in the wake of the CMI’s demise, however the EIFF has appointed a new programme director and will hold its 2023 festival within the Edinburgh International Festival before branching out on its own again next year.
Commenting on Silent Road, Ms Taylor said: “Johnny Barrington renders the Hebridean landscape, shot on film, as something strange and elemental: a place where we can see transgressive explorations of mourning exist alongside witty forays into religion and teenage hormonal curiosity. Stylistically, Silent Roar is the kind of bold, vivid and highly absorbing cinema that EIFF wants to champion, and we can’t wait to give the film a beautiful launch into the world.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here