The Ballad of a Great Disordered Heart, Filmhouse, Edinburgh International Film Festival

 The audience entered to live music from Aidan O'Rourke (fiddle) and Brìghde Chaimbeul (Scottish smallpipes), followed by an EIFF introduction and Aidan talking about the background to the film and the neighbours who has inspired him in lockdown.

He lives in a part of Edinburgh's Old Town which was once known as Little Ireland.  Lockdown, and the break it gave him form the life of a touring musician, allowed him to connect with people around him, especially the Three Margarets, who had lived in the area for many decades and were from the Irish immigrant community that provided the label.  It's a place set right by the main tourist trail, but comprising a warren of closes and courts that outsiders rarely venture into. 

These stories from the past got O'Rourke thinking about his own Irish connections, and what traditional music meant to communities.  The film takes us on his journey, from making those initial connections, through to a small community concert for the neighbours, in one of the sheltered wee courtyards their residences overlooked.  

It's a very intimate film, both in subject matter and in the tightness of the filming, with talking heads filling the frame.  There are some sequences from old Edinburgh, when the Margarets might have been young girls, but mostly it's shot in those closes and courts.  There is graffitti and dirt and untidiness, all a welcoming contrast to the fakeness of the tourist tat that abounds just a short distance away.  Aidan is joined by several musicians, who treat us to solo songs and tunes (with baffled passers by coming in and out of shot...), and come together for the concert.

Lockdown affected us all in different ways, and the changes it brought to O'Rourke are resonant for us all.  If you are interested in how experiences change lives, or the link between traditional music and community, or friendship and creativity, or simply seeing a bit of the city you might not have investigated before, then this is very much worth seeing.  This was a one-off showing, but I'd recommend seeking out a screening or seeing if the film becomes available online.