Famine, faith, and one heretic who sees potatoes where God sees punishment.
Set in 1847 in the Highlands of Scotland. In a remote village the people depend on their faith for survival during the potato famine. One man has different ideas.
Acting
Peter Mullan's simmering defiance in under 15 minutes.
Cinematography
Harsh Scottish light that makes the land feel hungry too.
Direction
Mackinnon squeezes epic moral weight into short film runtime.
Director
Douglas Mackinnon
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The film dramatizes real 1840s Highland resistance to potato adoption during the famine, when Presbyterian ministers sometimes condemned the tuber as ungodly.
Mullan and Macneacail improvised their Gaelic argument; Mackinnon kept rolling when the camera operator didn't understand the language and assumed they were still in scene.
GB
