Fife’s kilted film-makers make an entrance on Cannes Festival red carpet

They wore their kilts and became sought after for photos at the world’s greatest film festival.

It was a return visit for Ian Gordon and Alexander Henderson and their feature film The Gudeman, which has completed filming after a long and ambitious production schedule. They were joined by filmmaker Robbie Davidson, director of Dick Dynamite 1944, and Gary ‘Snars’ Allan, the star of the film.

The quartet were flying the flag for Square Go Films, the Kirkcaldy-based production company.

"It was crazy,” said Snars. "People around the festival look incredible, everyone is modelling dresses and suits under the palm trees and we couldn't walk past without people asking us to be in their photos"

One of the most surreal moments came when someone the group had been chatting with on the street suddenly realised she was talking to Dick Dynamite himself, declared it the best night of her life and began taking selfies.

With Dick Dynamite well on the way to establishing a cult status, Davidson was in Cannes to discuss a possible sequel - and discussions went well.

"We have lots of ideas to make Dynamite 2 bigger and badder, including one big change to the character... ", he revealed. "He's back, but this time he's Scottish!”

Meanwhile, inside the world's biggest film market - Marché du Film - Gordon and Henderson had meetings with distributors and sales companies to talk about the roll out of The Gudeman.

Set during the Highland Clearances, the film tells the story of a man dispatched to evict tenants from a remote highland croft, but finds himself fighting for survival against a monster in a hostile wilderness where he attracts the attention of a variety of magical creatures.

Filmed across Scotland in Orkney, Skye, Torridon, Assynt, the Cairngorms and Trossachs, the epic scenery and practical creature effects set it apart from other adventure films in a market that increasingly relies on green screens, studio locations, virtual environments and CGI.

Many discussions at Cannes this year have surrounded the use of generative AI in film with opinions polarising filmmakers. For Gordon and a lot of distributors he spoke with though, the picture is clearer than it appears.

"Genre audiences want practical effects and genre filmmakers love doing things that way," said Gordon. "The reaction from people is incredible, people can't believe we've actually been to the tops of these mountains and in the rivers - taking these animatronic puppets and monsters into those environments.

"It has been such a wild journey over the last few years, the scale of it is blurred even for me, but the reaction people have to the footage reminds me what we've achieved".

Spending time in the official UK Screen pavilion in the festival was also on the agenda for the team. "We keep getting asked what involvement we've had from organisations in the Scottish screen sector or tourist industry and we tell them we've had conversations, but I feel like we keep knocking on doors and nobody is quite sure what they can do for us." explains Henderson. "It's fine, we've just been busy doing our thing. Now the film is nearly ready, once people start to see what we've got, I think they'll be the ones knocking".