Iona’s untamed landscape provides the backdrop for this striking film about the aftermath of a violent relationship
A young woman who left an island community as a damaged teenager returns to her childhood home with a secret and her own troubled adolescent son. The remarkable Ruth Negga is a potent presence as the eponymous central character, who was named after the Hebridean island where the story unfolds. Iona, we learn through flashbacks, is fleeing the aftermath of a violent relationship. Her son Billy – or Bull as he prefers to be called – is a taciturn 15-year-old who thrashes in his sleep, soaked in the sweat of the night terrors that plague him. As with his feature debut Shell, writer/director Scott Graham here captures the tensions peculiar to an isolated community. Iona – the film as well as the central character – is complicated by prickly questions of religious faith. It’s a striking piece,...
A young woman who left an island community as a damaged teenager returns to her childhood home with a secret and her own troubled adolescent son. The remarkable Ruth Negga is a potent presence as the eponymous central character, who was named after the Hebridean island where the story unfolds. Iona, we learn through flashbacks, is fleeing the aftermath of a violent relationship. Her son Billy – or Bull as he prefers to be called – is a taciturn 15-year-old who thrashes in his sleep, soaked in the sweat of the night terrors that plague him. As with his feature debut Shell, writer/director Scott Graham here captures the tensions peculiar to an isolated community. Iona – the film as well as the central character – is complicated by prickly questions of religious faith. It’s a striking piece,...
- 3/24/2016
- by Wendy Ide
- The Guardian - Film News
Iona’s untamed landscape provides the backdrop for this striking film about the aftermath of a violent relationship
A young woman who left an island community as a damaged teenager returns to her childhood home with a secret and her own troubled adolescent son. The remarkable Ruth Negga is a potent presence as the eponymous central character, who was named after the Hebridean island where the story unfolds. Iona, we learn through flashbacks, is fleeing the aftermath of a violent relationship. Her son Billy – or Bull as he prefers to be called – is a taciturn 15-year-old who thrashes in his sleep, soaked in the sweat of the night terrors that plague him. As with his feature debut Shell, writer/director Scott Graham here captures the tensions peculiar to an isolated community. Iona – the film as well as the central character – is complicated by prickly questions of religious faith. It’s a striking piece,...
A young woman who left an island community as a damaged teenager returns to her childhood home with a secret and her own troubled adolescent son. The remarkable Ruth Negga is a potent presence as the eponymous central character, who was named after the Hebridean island where the story unfolds. Iona, we learn through flashbacks, is fleeing the aftermath of a violent relationship. Her son Billy – or Bull as he prefers to be called – is a taciturn 15-year-old who thrashes in his sleep, soaked in the sweat of the night terrors that plague him. As with his feature debut Shell, writer/director Scott Graham here captures the tensions peculiar to an isolated community. Iona – the film as well as the central character – is complicated by prickly questions of religious faith. It’s a striking piece,...
- 3/24/2016
- by Wendy Ide
- The Guardian - Film News
The best thing about this dour, minimalist Scottish movie is the performance of Chloe Pirrie as the 17-year-old daughter of an epileptic single father living a life of quiet desperation at a remote filling station in the Highlands. The second best is the cinematography of the South African-born Yoliswa Gärtig, who learned her trade in Germany at the Potsdam-Babelsberg school.
DramaPhilip French
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
DramaPhilip French
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
- 3/17/2013
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
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