THE TIMES: Gaelic film tipped for Oscar

11th August 2007

A £650,000 Scottish film conceived, produced and set on the Isle of Skye has been tipped for an Oscar – for Best Foreign Language Feature.

Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle is the first full-length Gaelic feature film and has its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Hannah McGill, the festival’s artistic director, said: “ Seachd combines myth-making and fantasy with a real sense of grit and pragmatism. That’s very Scottish to me – the wildest flights of fancy presented in a sort of down-to-earth, straight-faced manner.

“It’s pretty amazing that there’s never been a Scottish Gaelic film before, but it’s great that the first one is creating such buzz.”

Seachd is a rights-of-passage movie that unfolds through Gaelic mythology. At its heart is the relationship between the nine-year-old Angus, played by Patrick Morrison, and his storytelling grandfather, Angus Peter Campbell, who cares for the child after his parents are killed on a remote and rocky peak.

The film’s producer, Christopher Young, has learnt Gaelic since he moved to the Inner Hebridean island in 1999. He said: “In the islands, language is the passport to almost a hidden world.”

Seachd will be screened at the festival on Thursday.

by Mike Wade

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article2237457.ece