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4 × Scottish Cinema Debuts

This strand showcases new directions in Scottish cinema through the exciting feature debuts of four writer-directors from the last three years.

One only has to picture international productions like Death Watch (1980), Braveheart (1995), Breaking the Waves (1996), Under the Skin (2013) and even the Harry Potter films to visualise the ‘cinematic Scotland’. The great Chilean auteur Raúl Ruiz once noted that you could place your camera practically anywhere in Old Aberdeen and, “It’s good.” Despite this, ‘Scottish cinema’ has rarely been an entirely clearcut proposition and may not have been fully realised until as late as the new wave-inspired Bill Douglas Trilogy of the 1970s. Could we possibly include the myriad films set and/or filmed in Scotland but made by English production companies and English directors? Michael Powell’s The Edge of the World (1937), Ronald Neame’s Tunes of Glory (1960) and Peter Watkins’ Culloden (1964) are all superlative examples, but they are British films. Or do we allow ourselves to include the English and/or North American works of pioneering Scottish masters of cinema like John Grierson and Alexander Mackendrick?

The last thirty years have seen the blossoming of talents such as Lynne Ramsay, David Mackenzie and Jon S. Baird, who are currently nurturing their careers abroad. But what of new emerging filmmakers in the 2020s? This strand hopes to begin to answer that question.

Dr Alejandra Rodríguez-Remedi
Lecturer in Film and Visual Culture, University of Aberdeen

Aftersun – released towards the end of the pandemic, Scottish filmmaker Charlotte Wells’ revelatory, moving, and ‘emotionally autobiographical’ coming-of-age debut became a festival and streaming favourite. Shot in Turkey, it features an Oscar-nominated performance by Paul Mescal.

Silent Roar – Glasgow-based director and photographer Johnny Barrington’s dramedic reverie on bereavement makes admirable use of Outer Hebridean landscapes and seascapes. In addition to the influence of Mackendrick (Whisky Galore!, The Maggie) and particularly Bill Forsyth (Gregory’s Girl, Local Hero), the experimental musical score and nods to magical realism may remind us of Czech New Wave classics (Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Fruit of Paradise) while the approach to religiosity may recall Ryan’s Daughter. And there is surfing!

Kill – the first feature by Glasgow-based Northern Irish writer-director Rodger Griffiths is a tense indie thriller shot in the wilds of southwest Scotland, which may initially put us in mind of another recent forest-set genre debut, Matt Palmer’s Calibre (2018). Griffiths’ film, however, confidently uses a flashback structure to weave a twisted and dramatic tale of familial abuse, sibling bonds and betrayal.

On Falling – Edinburgh-based Portuguese writer-director Laura Carreira’s contemplative debut is clearly stylistically influenced by Ken Loach’s social realism in its denunciation of the dehumanising and precarious living and working conditions of an immigrant warehouse picker.

Alejandra Rodríguez-Remedi is a lecturer in film and visual culture at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. She trained and worked as an educational researcher at the University of Concepción, Chile, before relocating to Scotland where she undertook a PhD at Gray’s School of Art entitled ‘The arts as means of cultural integration: A Chilean case study’. Her teaching and research currently revolve around arts-based approaches to petroculture and the poetics of the Chilean experimental filmmaker Raúl Ruiz whom she assisted during his time at Aberdeen. Her most recent publications include three chapters in Austrian visual artist Ernst Logar’s edited volume, Reflecting Oil (De Gruyter, 2025), which marks the culmination of a 5-year interdisciplinary research project supported by the Austrian Science Fund. In 2024 and 2025, she has also been delighted to cohost masterclasses, Q&As and screenings with the Polish filmmakers Jan Komasa and Agnieszka Smoczyńska at the University of Aberdeen’s

George Washington Wilson Centre for Art and Visual Culture and Elphinstone Institute in conjunction with the BellaTOFIFEST International Film Festival and Polish Association Aberdeen.

Included in the section:

  1. Aftersun, dir. by Charlotte Wells, UK, USA, Turkey, Philippines, Netherlands, 2022, 102’
  2. Kill, dir. by Rodger Griffiths, UK, 2023, 94’
  3. On Falling, dir. by Laura Carreira, UK, Portugal, 2024, 104’
  4. Silent Roar, dir. by Johnny Barrington, UK, 2023, 90’

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4 × Scottish Cinema Debuts

This strand showcases new directions in Scottish cinema through the exciting feature debuts of four writer-directors from the last three years.

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