On general release

Scott Graham / UK / 2012 / 91 min

The striking debut feature from Scottish director Scott Graham, Shell, blends the tranquillity of the Scottish Highlands with motifs of loneliness, longing and discovery. Teenage Shell (Chloe Pirrie) lives with her cold father, Pete (Joseph Mawle) at a remote petrol station. The film’s beautiful and untouched surroundings mask the harsh realities of isolation and, as outsiders increasingly make an impression on Shell, begin to help create and realise dreams of escape.

Poignantly gentle and breathtakingly beautiful, Graham’s Shell is a piece that manages to contrast the everyday and mundane with the excitement of new discovery, uncomfortable encounters and hope of escape. A truthful yet at times devastating study of human nature and a need for companionship, Shell is an accomplished yet raw piece of new filmmaking. Exploring a number of themes but focusing on the masculine gaze and the male characters’ attraction to Shell’s innocence, this is a film about desire in its many forms; sexual, power, and most importantly, escape. A real gem in the Glasgow Film Festival’s crown, Shell is an emotive, mesmerising, evocative and utterly haunting film that speaks to the unfulfilled and forgotten pieces of the dreams that lie deep within us all.

Showing as part of the Glasgow Film Festival 2013

Follow Amy on Twitter @TrashTaylor