Year: 2022
Language: Scottish Gaelic (subtitled) and English
Directors: Kirsty MacDonald, Andy Mackinnon
Producers: John Archer, Andy Mackinnon
Executive Producers: Margaret Cameron, Mark Thomas
Editor: Andy Mackinnon
Production Coordinator: Mhairi Valentine
Production Manager: David Brown
Composer: Donald Shaw
Sound Recordists: Becky Thomson, Bartek Baranowski
Director of Photography: Andy Mackinnon
Production companies: Hopscotch Films and UistFilm productions
Screen Scotland funding: The film accessed £15,000 National Lottery and Scottish Government funding through Screen Scotland’s Audience Development Fund.
Synopsis
For many of us there are two places we can call home - where we were born, where we still feel we belong, and where we now live. This film is about the yearning for their birth home felt by those who have left the Isle of Berneray in the Outer Hebrides, and the remembrance of the ever-living past for those who have stayed or returned, when the home in their heart is also where they live.
The documentary feature Dùthchas | Home is a poignant, touching and emotive exploration of what it meant - and still means - to people, especially women, to have to leave the island of their birth to get an education, work, and live. We explore the effect this had on the Gaelic language and culture of the island. A particularly moving film for anyone with a connection with the
Hebrides. This film features previously unseen Kodachrome 8mm archive film of everyday life on the Isle of Berneray in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland through the 60s and 70s, intercut with interviews with people from the island including many featured in the archive film which reveals repeated iconic scenes of leaving the island, friends and relatives on the pier waving as they recede into the distance. Although the film is silent, you can almost hear the keening.
A specially composed soundtrack by Donald Shaw draws on the rich tradition of traditional Gaelic songs and their compelling melodies as inspiration.
More information
World Premiere: Edinburgh International Film Festival 2022