| Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle | |
| Director: | Simon Miller |
| Producer: | Christopher Young |
| Story: | Simon Miller Joanne Cockwell |
| Screenplay: | Simon Miller Joanne Cockwell Aonghas MacNeacail Ian Finlay Macleod Iseabail T NicDhòmhnaill |
| Starring: | Angus Peter Campbell, Pàdruig Moireasdan |
| Music: | Jim Sutherland |
| Cinematography: | Ian Dodds |
| Editing: | Aonghas MacAoidh |
| Runtime: | 90 minutes |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | Scottish Gaelic |
Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle is a 2007 Scottish Gaelic-language Scottish fantasy drama film by first-time director, Simon Miller from a story by Simon Miller and Joanne Cockwell. It stars Patrick Morrison/Pàdruig Moireasdan and acclaimed Gaelic magical realist poet and writer Angus Peter Campbell/Aonghas Pàdraig Chaimbeul in the role of the Grandfather. Toby Robertson, Meg Bateman, and Kathleen MacInnes also appear in supporting roles. It is the first feature-length film in the Scottish Gaelic language and was a remade and expanded from a previous short film, Foighidinn - The Crimson Snowdrop, also directed by Miller.[1]
Filming began in April 2006 around the Inaccessible Pinnacle at the top of Sgùrr Dearg in the Cuillin mountains on the Isle of Skye in the Hebrides of Scotland, and was completed in August 2006. The film screened at the Celtic Media Festival in March 2007,[2] and made its world premiere at the 61st Edinburgh International Film Festival in August 2007.
The word Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic: seachd (in Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic pronounced as /ʃaxk/) in the title means "seven" and references the number of stories the grandfather originally told.
When a young man, Angus, visits his dying grandfather in hospital he cannot hold back his boyhood quest for the truth - the truth behind the death of his parents and the truth behind his grandfather's ancient, incredible, fearful stories. Stories from the whole of Gàidhealtachd history and rooted in Hebridean mythology and folklore about poisoned lovers, bloody revenge, water-horses and Spanish gold. His grandfather hijacks Angus' life, for one last time leading him to one of Scotland's most treacherous mountains, the Inaccessible Pinnacle on the Isle of Skye, and an ancient truth; that his grandfather is actually seven hundred years old and personally experienced the Jacobite risings, Highland Clearances, and the Education Acts, and about the real origins of each of the seven stories that he never expected to find.
In the autumn of 2007, BAFTA refused to put the film, along with the Welsh-language film Calon Gaeth, forward as candidates for the Best Foreign Language Film Category at the 2008 Academy Awards. Christopher Young, the film's producer, claimed that the decision was "anti-Gaelic" and resigned his membership of BAFTA.[3] [4] [5] The issue was raised in the Scottish Parliament.[6]
The film received funding from the Gaelic Media Service, BBC Alba, the Glasgow Film Office and Scottish Screen. It had a budget of £655,000 ($1.3m) and was shot on Skye in 2006.
The film was nominated for 3 BAFTAs[7] and Miller for the Michael Powell Award[8] and was warmly received with comparisons drawn to works such as Big Fish and The Princess Bride.[9]