Saturday 29 June 2019

The Tobacconist (Der Trafikant), Edinburgh international Film Festival, Omni

With no real options for work in his remote village, teenager Franz (Simon Morzé) is sent off to Vienna by his mother, to work for Otto Trsnjek (Johannes Krisch) in his tobacconist shop.  The youngster sets about learning the business, and getting to know the customers.  Prominent among them is Herr Professor Sigmund Freud (Bruno Ganz) who takes an interest in Franz.  The boy falls in love with the flighty and knowing Anezka (Emma Drogunova), but when the girl keeps vanishing from his life it's the eminent professor he turns to for advice.

This simple coming of age tale is enriched by the political background, for this is 1937 and there is a rising movement in Austria sympathetic to the Nazis, wanting the country to become a part of a Greater Germany.  Trsnjek is vehemently opposed, and continues to serve his customers, be they communists or Jews (like Freud) in the face of threats and intimidation.  When the Anschluss takes place in March 1938, and the Gestapo are suddenly in the city, Franz is forced to take sides and the psychiatrist has a big decision to make.

The movie's biggest failing is it's obsession with symbolism, a tiresome means to link it to Freud himself.  Ganz is a big compensation though, a still, considered centre of a violently changing society.  And the contemporary resonance, especially the licence for bigotry given to ordinary people by the prevailing ideology, is depressingly relevant in a UK fearfully obsessed with "foreigners".

Weaknesses notwithstanding this movie is a powerful reminder of the disturbing ease with which fascism insinuates itself and the parallels with our own times.

Friday 28 June 2019

Ode to Joy, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Odeon

Charlie (Martin Freeman) is a librarian who suffers from cataplexy, a condition that makes him lose control of his body, and sometimes faint, if he experiences strong emotions, especially happiness.  So he spends his life taking care to avoid joyful situations, tries to think boring thoughts, and occasionally ending up in A&E when he gets a bit too happy.  This also means he has to avoid having a girlfriend.

 Cue the arrival of Francesca (Morena Baccarin), whose boyfriend brings her to the library just so he can break up with her in a place where she won't cause a scene.  Which she does do anyway, to be calmed down by the empathetic Charlie.  They go on a date, but the cataplexy ensures it ends disastrously.  So Charlie comes up with a plan to keep her in his life as a friend, but without risking him being too happy about it.  Could they ever get together as a couple and make it work?

The answer isn't hard to guess because this is movie making by numbers.  A generic Hollywood Romcom that's conventional, predictable and just a bit boring.  Unless that's really your thing I'd give this one a miss.

Thursday 27 June 2019

Never Look Away (Werk ohne Autor), Edinburgh International Film Festival, Odeon

Loosely based on the life of famed artist Gerhard Richter, this sweeping story of artistic discovery spans more than three decades of German history, and lives lived under Nazism, communism and capitalism.  It begins in 1937 where a 6 year old Kurt Barnert and his Aunt Elisabeth (Saskia Rosendahl) are on a tour of the "degenerate art" exhibition, put on with the Nazis to deride anything which conflicted with their strictly realist ideas on what constitutes "art".  Out of hearing of the tour guide Elisabeth tells the child how much she likes the Kandinsky they've been told to despise, effectively giving the boy permission to make his own choices in what he values.

A memorable scene in which Kurt's aunt utters the three words of the title adding "everything that is true holds beauty in it", a maxim which will resonate into Kurt's adult life.  Later she is taken away to a mental institution, to be sterilised ("purifying the race") and her eventual death.  In these years she comes into contact with a man who will also play a major role in Kurt's life.

The war years introduce us to Professor Karl Seeband (Sebastian Koch), a leading gynecologist who's a fan of eugenics, and in a senior position in the SS.  He turns up again post-war, still a respected member of the regime, but this time it's the communist DDR.  Where we meet the adult Kurt (Tom Schilling), a student at art school, full of talent but unsure in what direction his art will find it's full expression.  He falls in love with Ellie (Paula Beer), who is the daughter of the professor, and their lives become intertwined.  Kurt will go on to be recognised for his huge murals in the socialist realism style, before escaping to the west shortly before the Berlin Wall closes that chance to escape.  In Dusseldorf he goes on to discover the techniques that will make him famous.

There are certainly flaws to the film.  Schilling lacks conviction as a driven artistic genius, there are too many cliched moments, and the film never really gets to grips with the relationship between art and politics.  But as an entertainment it belies it's 3 and a bit hours running time, never feeling overlong or overblown.  There's some stunning cinematography, an excellent score and several compelling performances.  Not least from Koch who dominates the screen in every appearance as the amoral opportunist with a dodgy past who always manages to land on his feet (a bit like certain UK politicians in the news at the moment...).  And there's an interesting comparison of life under extreme right and left wing dictatorships.

Recommended.

Wednesday 26 June 2019

The Grizzlies, Edinburgh international Film Festival, Odeon

Based on a true story from 2004/05, this is your standard redemptive sports movie with an attention to background that gives it a depth the genre usually lacks.

Russ (Ben Schnetzer) has to spend a year teaching history in a remote Inuit town in northern Canada for a year, before he can get himself a 'proper' job in a 'decent' school.  He's brash, arrogant, preppy and dismissive of the advice he receives from resigned old hand Mike (Will Sasso) and concerned indigenous head teacher Janace (Tantoo Cardinal).  very soon he's lost any interest from the few students that still come to his classes, but is also starting to learn a bit more about the culture and problems of the community he's been placed in, helped by the smart interventions of his brightest pupil, Miranda (Emerald MacDonald).

For Russ the answer is sport, in his case lacrosse which has a thousand year history in North America.  After many trials and tribulations and cultural faux pas he gets a team together, inspires the kids and they get to go to the national championships in Toronto, bringing pride to themselves and their community.  So far so predictable.  What marks The Grizzlies out as a bit special is the treatment of the issues that dominate the lives of the people of the town.  The decline of traditional values, drink and drugs, the high suicide rate (the opening scene shows a young man walk into the wilderness to shoot himself, and there are other suicides during the course of the story), poverty, and a history of broken "white man's promises" combine to help Russ realise he knows nothing and that his team can  teach him far more than he can them.

Schnetzer does a good job in portraying the humbled Russ, but it's the performances of the locally recruited youngsters that stand out, especially the calm and controlled MacDonald.  The film ends with some facts about the subsequent lives of the real people portrayed on screen, with the real Russ staying on in the job for several years, and the The Grizzlies team still playing and forming an important part of the town's activities.  That it's also been well received by the Inuits themselves is as good a recommendation as I can make.

Champions (Campeones), Edinburgh International Film Festival, Filmhouse

Marco (Javier Gutiérrez) is assistant coach at a top pro basketball club.  Until he assaults the head coach during a match, gets drunk and drives into the back of a police car.  the judge gives him a choice.  Prison, or community service.  He opts for the latter and finds himself coach to a 'team' with learning difficulties (or 'retards' in Marco-speak) in an underfunded community centre.  Adding to his misery he's estranged from wife Sonia (Athenia Mata) and living with his ultra-critical mother.

It's not really giving spoilers away to say that Marco is transformed by his experience with his new charges, turns the team into a success and is reunited with Sofia, because this is an unabashedly feelgood film, wearing a gigantic red heart on it's sleeve.  It's emotionally manipulative, heartwarming and redemptive.  Add in the dangers of patronising a social group that endures enough mockery already, and the heavy handed 'message' the film hammers home, and I really shouldn't have liked this film.

But.  It is very, very funny, and for all the right reasons.  The team members, all non-professional actors, are shown as rounded human beings, and Gloria Ramos is simply wonderful as the piss-taking, ever resourceful Collantes.  If anyone is being patronised it's the kind of emotionally constipated macho male that the Marco character represents.  He emerges as the one with the biggest disability to overcome, helped by the wisdom of old community leader Julio and the quiet understanding of the tall, talented and enigmatic  Román.

A huge dollop of Spanish fun.

Strange But True, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Odeon

In the opening scene Philip (Nick Robinson) is running through the woods as best he can with a leg in plaster and one crutch to lean on, panicked and scared, trying to escape an unseen pursuer.

Cut to two days earlier and Philip is lying on the couch, mum Charlene (Amy Ryan) elsewhere in the house, when Melissa (Margaret Qualley) knocks on the door.  She's heavily pregnant, and has come to tell them that the father is Ronnie, Philip's older brother.  But he's been dead for 5 years.

Melissa is virulently dismissive of the claim, but her son remains open minded, intrigued even, and sets out to find out more about the facts behind this strange story.  His investigations, at times verging into supernatural territory, are intertwined with flashbacks to the events surrounding Ronnie's death, and the return of father Richard (Greg Kinnear) from his home in Florida.  The pregnant woman lives alone, looked out for by elderly neighbours Gail (Blythe Danner) and Bill (Brian Cox), and their remote houses are set deep in the woods...

The first part of the movie, as Philip's investigations turn up family secrets, is an exploration of grief and loss and their impact on the  fragility of human relationships.  But the tension of that opening scene is always in the background.  When the (very dark) plot twist arrives, and we find out why Philip is on the run, the drama speeds up, the tension increases, but the resolution does stretch credulity a bit far.  That's partly compensated for by a closing scene that raises more questions than it answers.  There are some truths people prefer not to know.

Tremendous performances and tight editing carry this one off, and it's and enjoyable and occasionally thought provoking watch.  Recommended.

Tuesday 25 June 2019

Venezia, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Omni

Sofia (Paula Lussi) lies sobbing on a hotel bed.  She goes out, accompanied by a policeman, looking sad and bewildered.  Is she under arrest?  Being protected?  The real explanation is every bit as dramatic, but this is no thriller.  Venezia is a thoughtful exploration of loss, grief and culture shock set against a winter Venice that's a pale imitation of the tourist traps that are it's usual image.

In walking the streets to await events, and try to make sense of the situation she finds herself in, Sofia watches the ordinary life of the city, tries, half heartedly, to do the touristy things she came to do, and has encounters with locals and visitors that provide temporary distractions from what's happened.  There are no rules when it comes to coping with tragedy.

A minimalist soundtrack enhances the atmosphere, minimalist subtitling lets us experience Sofia's confusion about her surroundings (she's from Argentina).  Slow paced, slow burning, this is a film that stays with you afterwards, provoking further thoughts on the nature of what you've seen.  Lussi is excellent in portraying the rudderless vulnerability and emotional turmoil of a woman thrown into an unexpected trauma, trying to maintain a connection to real life.

Highly recommended.

Monday 24 June 2019

Liberte : A Call to Spy, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Odeon

The story begins in London, 1941, with the Special Operations Executive trying to find ways to infiltrate agents into France where they can work to disrupt the German occupation.  Vera Atkins (Stana Katic) persuades her boss, Maurice Buckmaster (Linus Roache), she can recruit women who will be able to do the job as effectively as men, and it's two of her recruits that the film concentrates on.

Virginia Hall (Sarah Megan Thomas) is an American with a wooden leg, Noor Inayat Khan (Radhika Apte) a Sufi pacifist.  Both will spend time in France, working with the Resistance, and dodging the Gestapo, with Hall excelling as an organiser, Khan as a wireless operator.  There's plenty of tension, lots of action, and a picture of how confusing and terrifying their lives were emerges.  While the anti semitism in Vichy territory comes as no surprise, it also pervades the British organisation, with Atkins struggling to get the recognition she deserved.

Based on a true story, the film ends with text showing what became of the real life characters, 13 of the 39 female spies dropped in France being killed in action.  This is a decent enough attempt to reflect their achievements, although presented somewhat confusingly, with scene piled upon scene making the individual storylines hard to follow.  But there's tension aplenty in both France and London, and some honesty in showing how incompetent the SOE could be at times.  Katic is excellent as the stressed and discriminated against Atkins, while Thomas delivers a properly flawed and human hero.

For all it's defects it's an enjoyable movie and one that deserves a wider viewing for bringing attention to these brave women.

Cronofobia, Edinburgh international Film Festival, Omni

Teasing introductory scenes draw the audience swiftly into a mystery that is never wholly dispelled.  What is Michael (Vinicio Marchioni) up to, what motivates his spying on others?  Is he a detective, or a stalker, or a serial killer?  His interest in the lonely looking Anna (Sabine Timoteo) leads them into contact, she unsuspecting at first, later aware that there's more to her new acquaintance than first appearances give clue to.
The resulting relationship twists and turns through secrets and lies and loneliness.  When Michael's real purpose is revealed the answer might be more mundane than those earlier suggestions, but no less sinister.  Both are characters stuck in a past they can't move on from, unable to move on from previous incidents.
Beautifully shot, slow paced, full of silences that speak to us, and an excellent soundtrack, Cronofobia -the fear of the passing of time - is a slow burner, fascinating throughout, a strange mix of thriller, mystery and romance.  Clever stuff and totally absorbing.

Emma Peeters, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Omni

Far from being your typical Romcom, this joint Belgian/Canadian production set in Paris is imaginative and quirky.  When the eponymous struggling actress (Monia Chokri) realises she's never going to 'make it', and her 35th birthday, the expiry date for actresses, is just days away, she resolves to bring the situation to an end.  Literally.

Emma starts looking into suicide methods (ideally entirely painless and mess free of course) and organising her death.  Which includes arranging her funeral.  But she doesn't bank on eccentric undertaker Alex (Fabrice Adde) falling in love with her.  His attentions, initially unwelcome, add to the confusion and comedy, not least with the hearse lovemobile.

The director, Nicole Palo, describes it as 'a feelgood movie about feeling bad', and that's as good a summary as any.  In addition to the subject matter she lifts the movie out of the ordinary by employing a mix of styles, reflecting Emma's filmic expectations, so there's a passage shot as an old silent movie, another as a musical, adding to the charmingly odd feel of the film.  Both leads are excellent, especially the wide eyed Chokri, and good to see Jim Morrison making a return appearance in Père Lachaise!  Jim the cat is a bit of a star too.

It's not without flaws, and resorts to the occasional cliché, but Emma Peeters is that rare thing, a romantic comedy that surprises.  Great fun and highly recommended.

In a Foreign Land (En tierra extraña), Edinburgh International Film Festival, Filmhouse

A documentary looking into the reasons why the Spanish community in Edinburgh increased so rapidly after the 2008 financial crash.  It interweaves interviews with 20 or so emigrants to Scotland, mostly thirty-somethings, with footage of a photographic project which they and others took part in.  A third strand features excerpts from a monologue on the Madrid stage by actor Alberto san Juan, giving a history of the post-Franco Spanish state from a left wing perspective.

Putting these elements together paints a powerful picture of the failure of Spain's governments to deal with the crisis in a way that benefits ordinary citizens, the resulting migration to seek work, and why the pernicious influence of fascism is still alive and kicking in national institutions. Most of the interviewees express their wish to be back home if they could, but here they can earn more for relatively low level work - cleaning, waiting, fast food server - than they can in the professions they are fully qualified for. And most say they have been made welcome in their new home, with only one having experienced any bigotry on account of their nationality.  It's a sad, funny, empowering and empathetic experience to be drawn into.  

Although the interviews are only seven years old, and the film itself released in 2014, it already feels like a portrait of a distant past.  Since then a big ugly elephant has found it's way into the room, dramatically, and negatively, affecting the lives of all EU27 citizens living in the UK.  The same movie being made today would have a very different feel to it...

Friday 21 June 2019

The Fall of the American Empire (La chute de l'empire américain), Edinburgh International Film Festival, Omni

Pierre-Paul (Alexandre Landry) considers himself an intellectual, too intelligent for the needs of capitalist society, and that's why he's a parcel delivery van driver and almost friendless.  When he finds himself on the scene of a failed armed robbery and two holdalls stuffed with banknotes almost fall at his feet, it takes only a few seconds for him to take the bags and stash them away.  But, unworldly as he is, he has little idea what he's going to do with them.

Resolving this problem leads him into an unlikely alliance, working with a recently released fraudster (Rémy Girard), an international financier (Pierre Curtzi), and falling in love with the city's most expensive prostitute (Maripier Morin), while trying to fend off the attentions of a police duo who know he did something, but aren't quite sure how.  Part thriller, part comedy, part love story, it can be easily enjoyed as a crime romp.  But director Denys Arcand, true to past form, includes a healthy dose of social commentary.  Homelessness, racial prejudice, police complicity in neoliberalism, the ease with which the wealthy evade paying their taxes, philosophy all get an airing, and there are some lovely 'Robin Hood' moments of kindness.

Fun, but with depth.  Recommended.

And With a Smile, The Revolution! (Avec un sourire, la révolution!), Edinburgh International Film Festival, Omni

A Quebecois take on the 2017 Catalan independence referendum.  Director Alexandre Chartrand and his team spent several months in Barcelona in the lead up to the historic vote on 1 October, and the resulting footage is a testament to the passion and peacefulness of the Indy movement.

A flashback to 1976, shortly after the death of the dictator Franco, showed Catalan singer/songwriter Lluis Llach returning to his country to lead a huge crowd in his anti fascist anthem La Staca (The Stake).  Forty one years later he is a member of the Catalan Parliament and a leading voice in the independence movement.  Interviews with Lllach and other leading members of the movement are mixed in with the parliamentary vote to hold the referendum,  footage of the vast pro Indy street demonstrations, the careful preparations being made by Catalan government ministers, and the reactionary tone of the right wing Prime Minister Rajoy in Madrid.  Against the Indy message of peace, democracy, inclusiveness and welcome the centralist, unionist announcements reflect shadows of their Francoist past.

The film builds up the tension as the day of the referendum nears, Spanish threats becoming ever more aggressive, the Catalans finding ways to evade their attentions.  Thousands of national police and policed from other regions, along with the brutal riot police of the Guardia Civil, were brought in to try and stop the ballot from taking place.  Catalans responded with peaceful civil disobedience.  Ballot boxes were hidden away until needed, ballot papers were held by private citizens until the day (nullifying the police raids on printers, newspapers and others).

The day itself is shown in greater detail.  Polling stations occupied by citizens overnight to prevent their closure, peaceful barriers against police intervention, the sense of fear and resolution when police in full riot gear showed up, the joy of voters at finally having a chance to have their say.  And harrowing evidence of police brutality in their efforts to try and subvert the democratic process.  Despite all Madrid's efforts (they did manage to close down about 400 polling stations and confiscate votes that had been legitimately cast, and around 1000 people were injured on the day) a result was announced, an overwhelming Sí to independence.  Chartrand shows us the signing of the declaration by Catalan PM Carles Puigdemont, the celebrations in Catalan streets, and the threats of the Spanish government.  But by the time those threats were enacted he had returned to Montreal, and the details of those imprisoned and exiled, are a sad endnote to the story as it can be told to date.  In a talk after the screening he was able to provide us more details of the trials, and those awaiting potentially lengthy prison sentences for their part in enacting democracy.

Moving, frightening, inspiring, passionate, this is an important film, and essential viewing for anyone wanting to learn more about popular democracy, self determination, and the abuse of state power.  The parallels to Scotland are clear (and to Quebec, the movie having heavy backing from the province) and it's hard, as an Indy supporter here, not feel jealous of the Catalan movement's ability to claim the streets.  We share with them a popular base, democratic intent, peacefulness, inclusivity and those smiles mentioned in the title.  When confronted with police line ups the demonstrators offered them flowers.  There are lessons to be learned from this film.

Highly recommended, and I hope it gets a wide circulation in this country.

Thursday 20 June 2019

Boyz in the Wood, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Festival Theatre

After blowing up their school toilet block during an attempt to create a bad-taste video, Dean (Rian Gordon), Duncan (Lewis Gribben) and the self-styled 'DJ Beatroot' (Viraj Juneja) choose the 'punishment' of a Duke of Edinburgh Award Highlands camping trip instead of expulsion.  They are joined by the nerdy and solidly middle class Ian (Samuel Bottomley) who thinks a DoE Award will look good on his CV for uni.  Dumped in the wilderness with minimal instructions by their past-caring supply teacher they head off across the hills.

As if their ignorance of the countryside and disaffected bravado aren;t handicap enough, they find themselves being hunted by a strange pair of tweeded and masked toffs who they name the Duke (Eddie Izzard) and Duchess (Georgie Glen), landowners who think that removing a few feral kids from the gene pool will improve the breeding stock.  With their teacher 'accidentally' removed from the scene the four teenagers are left to depend on their own wits for survival.

There's a touch of Calibre in the plot, but the treatment is much more League of Gentlemen.  Bizarre rituals, a farmers' rave and hallucinogenic rabbit shit turn up alongside strobing images and rapid flashbacks, coincidence and fantasy.  The comic book approach makes for a fast ride, plenty of laughs and much silliness.  There are some glaring weaknesses, with an overly daft police sub-plot wasting the combined talents of Kate Dickie and Kevin Guthrie, and the self-consciously contrived title showing a surprising lack of imagination given the ever changing nature of the content, but that's to be expected from director Ninian Doff's debut feature.  There's a lot of promise in this movie, and he's got the balance between comedy and tension bang on - literally so in the crushing moment of the denouement.  Strong performances too, notably from Gordon who makes Dean the most fully realised character of the group.  Izzard and Glen look like they're having a lot of fun.

A very contemporary comedy horror of mixed qualities, but fun enough to be constantly entertaining.

Friday 14 June 2019

Gary McNair : Work in Progress, Traverse

What it says on the tin.  Very much the performer trying out part-finished new material on an audience, although McNair's falsely modest statement that he'd get more out of the evening than we would proved false.  Call it honours even.

Throwing his trainers on to stage by way of introduction, it was clear this wouldn't be a conventional couple of hours of theatre.  Sat a desk he explained he'd been given an open commission to develop an audio piece for a big company, and he wanted to use the night to try out a couple of ideas and see what reaction he got, maybe modifying the work along the way.

The first was a character piece where he'd set himself the task of writing a character he didn't like.  John proved to be a self-justifying psychopath, and angry violent man heading towards an ill-judged career as a vigilante.  Funny, but increasingly sinister as the monologue revealed more and more about the man.  It definitely had potential, and McNair later explained some of John's backstory, and where the plot might be headed.

There was no proper interval, just a chance for people to take a loo break while the performer jested with the remaining audience, and was happy to interact.  The second piece required him to bring in a few different voices as he told a very personal story in two disparate and interwoven strands.  One took him back to his teenage years and faltering attempts to form a band, until he recognised that his severe lack of talent got in the way.  The second took place a few years ago when he seized upon the opportunity to work in the US for the chance to visit the home town of his musical idols, REM.  His insistence that this was a shaggy dog story (with his own amusing recollection of how he'd once thought that phrase had related to Scooby Doo...) proved correct, and the switching from one story to another was far from seamless at this stage in their development.  But both tales had a strong tension built in, especially the more recent one, and he explained at the end how they would fit together in the end.  As before, the potential is clear.

Shambolic maybe, but McNair is a charismatic presence on stage, funny, thoughtful, honest.  Sharing a sentence that had all the sense of a cocaine drenched Tory contender was hilarious, showed how the creative process works for him, and made us aware he's not afraid of ridiculing himself.  I'm sure he got lots out of the show.  But so did we, and everyone left with a smile on their face.

Wednesday 12 June 2019

Katona Twins, St George's Hall Concert Room, Liverpool

The Hungarian guitar duo giving a 30th anniversary Hollywood-themed concert in the beautiful surroundings of the St George's Hall Concert Room.  Although they began with some compositions of a little known 20th century Italian composer, their move into the works of one of his pupils, Henry Mancini, took us into much more familiar territory, which is where they remained for most of the show,  AS well as film and TV music there was a bit of Django Reinhardt, and a piece written by Peter Katona that opened the second set.

Their technical perfection is in no doubt, the musical empathy between them is obvious, and it's constantly impressive how they are able to seamlessly switch the lead from brother to brother.  The arrangements are clever, with even a weel kent like the Pink Panther theme taking on a new life.  Each number is preceded by an introduction for one of the two, and although their accents remain pronounced they are both informative and amusing - the Carl Bernstein story was a cracker.

Criticisms?   Classical training has it's disadvantages, removing the passion from the gypsy jazz and leaving it impressively accurate but bloodless.  And I don't think I've ever seen anybody bow so much in my life.  It became a running joke to us...

Despite these wee quibbles this was an impressive performance.  I particularly enjoyed Peter's dramatic interpretation of The Brother Karamazov, a Hitchcockian theme that was the most cinematic of all the numbers played.  A tour de force.

Saturday 1 June 2019

Fara, Lemon Tree, Aberdeen

Opening the show was local singer/songwriter Josephine Anthony.  She'd make the perfect folk club resident - confident, interesting, a decent singer and guitarist.  More finger work than the average strummer, strong voice in the upper notes, a bit wavery lower down, but not enough to stop her singing being very enjoyable.  Some good songs too, and nice to hear a pro-Indy number in the set.



Orcadian supergroup Fara are fiddlers Kirsten Harvey, Jeana Leslie and Catriona Price, with Jennifer Austin on keyboards.  They sing too, with Leslie taking most of the lead vocal work.  Their abilities are very much steeped in the tradition, but most of their material is self penned, working both individually and collectively.  Several of the songs are existing poems set to their own tunes.

Their playing is a delight.  Sensitive, exciting, with complex interplay and memorable melodies, their mutual understanding and empathy shine through.  Leslie has a fine, clear voice, the others contributing some gentle harmonies, but it's the music that matter most.  All three fiddlers impress hugely, but so often the key to their overall sound lies in the clever accompaniments of Austin.  And a highlight of the set came when the fiddlers left the stage to her solo rendition of her own tune, Maxwell's Light, a hauntingly beautiful tune.

All four take turns at introducing the numbers, with several laughs along the way, their pleasure in being on stage clear to see.  They're an engaging live presence, and a delight to listen to.  The Orkney musical tradition is in very good hands.