Edinburgh International Film Festival: Hebridean 'surfing, sex and hellfire' drama to open reborn event

Silent Roar was shot entirely on location on the Isle of Lewis

The Outer Hebrides will take centre stage when the Edinburgh International International Film Festival (EIFF) reopens with the world premiere of a story of “surfing, sex and hellfire” made on the Isle of Lewis.

Opening gala Silent Roar will focus on the relationship between a young surfer mourning the loss of his father at sea, who is brought to his senses by a high-achieving, but rebellious girl in his class at school.

Rising stars Louis McCartney and Ella Lily Hyland play teenagers Dondo and Sas in the film, which also features stage veteran Mark Lockyer as a maverick preacher who has recently returned to their island.

Rising stars Louis McCartney and Ella Lily Hyland star in the new Scottish feature film Silent Road. Picture: Ali Tollervey

Written and directed by Skye-based Johnny Barrington, Silent Roar was entirely filmed in and around Uig, on the south-west coast of Lewis, during a six-week shoot in 2021.

Funded by Screen Scotland, BBC Film and the BFI, Silent Roar was produced by Chris Young, the Skye-based producer of hit comedy series The Inbetweeners and the Gaelic drama series Bannan.

For the second year in a row, the festival will open with a debut feature by a Scottish filmmaker after last year’s curtain-raiser Aftersun, by Charlotte Wells.

Silent Roar will signal the rebirth of the EIFF, which faced a bleak future in October after the sudden collapse of its operator, the Centre for the Moving Image (CMI).

Silent Road stars Louis McCartney and Ella Lily Hyland with producer Chris Young and writer-director Johnny Barrington. Picture: Ali Tollervey

However, the CMI’s funders, Screen Scotland, the Scottish Government and Edinburgh City Council, have supported the festival’s return in a scaled-back format, which will be staged across six days as part of the Edinburgh International Festival.

The full line-up for the 76-year-old festival, which is being led by programme director Kate Taylor this year, will be announced early next month.

Ms Taylor said: “Silent Roar is a very easy film to fall in love with. From the idiosyncratic charm of Louis McCartney’s performance, to Ella Lily Hyland’s turn as crisp-chomping cool girl Sas, to Hannah Peel’s soaring score, the film is infused with mystic charisma.

“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.

Louis McCartney stars in the new Scottish feature film Silent Roar. Picture: Ali Tollervey

“Stylistically, Silent Roar is the kind of bold, vivid and highly absorbing cinema that EIFF wants to champion. We can’t wait to give the film a beautiful launch into the world.”

Barrington said: “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. 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 – and partying hard at weekends, or so I have been told.

"What formed is a story well wadded with ineffable nonsense, tears and laughter. So, if you like staring into sea caves, the human soul and cement mixers, then you’ll love Silent Roar.”

Johnny Barrington is the writer and director of new Scottish feature film Silent Roar. Picture: Ali Tollervey

Isabel Davis, executive director at Screen Scotland, which provided £500,000 for the production, said: “It’s so exciting that Johnny’s hotly-anticipated debut feature will first meet its audience in Edinburgh. As one of Scotland’s most distinctive and beguiling new voices, it’s been a privilege to have supported his creative journey.”