g h E d i n b u r r n a t i o n a l e I n t F i l m F e s t i v a l
Dram busters Having the closing fi lm at the EIFF is always a much-sought after accolade. Eddie Harrison talks to Gillies MacKinnon who nabs that
slot this year with his remake of the classic Whisky Galore!
L ike the creation of Scotland’s favourite alcoholic drink, i lm production can require a lot of patience. The closing i lm of the 2016 Edinburgh International Film Festival is a re-imagining of the classic Ealing comedy i lm Whisky Galore! Based on the book by Compton Mackenzie, the 1949 Alexander Mackendrick i lm is one of Scotland’s seminal texts: its famous clash between wily Scottish villagers and arch English ofi cials has been scripted by Peter McDougall and directed by Gillies MacKinnon (Small Faces, Hideous Kinky). It’s been over a decade in the works, but the i lmmaker feels the wait has been well worth it.
‘I honestly can’t remember when I i rst started on this project, it was one of those things that was always on the brink of happening,’
says MacKinnon. ‘I started out doing some storyboards maybe eight years ago; I used to be a cartoonist so doing that was my i rst involvement. [Producer] Iain Maclean worked so hard on this for so long: he just wouldn’t give up. To make something like this happen, you have to get up every morning for year after year, look at yourself in the mirror and say, “this is going to happen”. And it paid off, eventually.’ Based on the sinking of the SS Politician during World War Two, the i lm shows how villagers dei ed authorities to capture and enjoy the whisky that was being carried by the ship during a time of strict rationing. Gregor Fisher plays opposite Eddie Izzard in the 2016 version. ‘I’d always wanted to work with Gregor, he’s a very interesting man,’ notes MacKinnon. ‘People know him for Rab C Nesbitt, but I knew that he was also a very sensitive actor. And Eddie was someone I’d worked with a few years ago; going back to the original Mackendrick i lm, Captain Waggett is not a despicable character and it was important that we didn’t just make him an English caricature. And then we had great Scottish talent like James Cosmo to play the villagers themselves.’ Taking on a well-loved comedy classic is a tough assignment, particularly when Whisky Galore! is so deeply ingrained in the Scottish national consciousness. ‘The original is a i lm that a lot of people told me they’d watched with their grandparents, it’s a beloved text that’s been passed from generation to generation with real affection. Peter’s script really l eshed out the relationships of the villagers, exploring the idea of a father losing his daughters and
18 THE LIST 2 Jun–1 Sep 2016