The BFI London Film Festival opens tonight on Leicester Square and this year’s shorts programme features DigiCult’s first Gaelic language production, Catriona Macinnes’ A Cuillin Rising.

Shot in Autumn 2010 on Skye, this twenty minute film is a powerful, poetic evocation of contemporary life in the North West of Scotland featuring memorable performances from two local actors Lorne MacFadyen (The Angel’s Share, Foxy & Marina) and Annie Macleod (Seachd – The Inaccessible Pinnacle).

As Catriona eloquently explains in her notes on the film, she embarked on A Cuillin Rising “to examine the draw of my heritage, but also my disassociation with it. I wanted to try and capture the space between tradition and modernity; the isolation of being young compounded by living in a remote place, with its ancient landscape, rising above.”

Born in Inverness, Catriona first trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama before completing a Masters of Fine Arts in Advanced Film Practice at the Screen Academy in Edinburgh. Her graduation film I’M IN AWAY FROM HERE premiered in competition at the 65th Venice International Film festival in 2008; was nominated for a BAFTA emerging Talent Award the following year, and has been screened at festivals throughout the world.

Produced in association with Urbancroft – an emerging Scottish production company based in Glasgow’s Film City – producer Martyn Robertson assembled an impressive team to realise the piece including cinematographer Tania Gallis (Burn My Body, Whore, Fulll Firearms), composer P.G. Six and Catriona’s regular collaborator editor/associate producer Ian Waugh (Leaves).

A Cuillin Rising was developed and commissioned through DigiCult’s Scottish Digital Shorts programme 2009-10, with production investment from Creative Scotland, UK Film Council and BBC Scotland.

Catriona is currently developing her first feature script.

For clips and more information, please visit the film’s website.