MSPIFF: Seeing Stuart

I was really keen to see "Mr Foe" at MSPIFF last night. It's the only Scots film in the festival, and was shot in my boyhood hometown of Edinburgh.

The film tells a twisted tale of a young man obsessed with his dead mother. The story takes a really strange turn when he bumps into a young woman who looks just like his mom in the streets of Edinburgh. The young man, named Hallam Foe, (the film's original title,) begins stalking her by climbing the roofs of the city's old town.

The film caused great excitement when it premiered at the Edinburgh International festival last year, starring as it does Jamie Bell ("Billy Elliot") and Sophia Myles ("Art School Confidential.") It was directed by David Mackenzie who did "Young Adam" a couple of years back.

So there I am watching the film, (complicated by the fact that the reels of the film had been spliced together in the wrong order.) I was really enjoying the views of the streets where I walked as a youngster when suddenly the face of an old college friend appeared on the screen. It was a little surreal.

"It's Stuart Hepburn!" I thought.

I knew he had been working as a scriptwriter and actor for some time. Yet here was a guy I used to bump into pretty regularly, who was well-known for his anti-establishment views - and he's playing a policeman.

I was the only one laughing aloud in the theater at that point.

I really enjoyed this film too, and took my sister to see it. I particularly enjoyed seeing all the Edinburgh shots, but I didn't recognise anyone, just the buildings, and at the more lusty parts was glad that my Dad had refused the invitation of a night out at the cinema.