Public Servant Lifestyle

British director David Mackenzie’s debut feature will appeal to fans of twisted tales laden with suspense and macabre humour.

The Last Great Wilderness

If you get a chance to see the film Empire magazine is calling "The great new hope of the British film industry" and Uncut called "(A) shocking...and accomplished debut", don't pass it up!

Described as a paranoid cross between Anthony Shaffer's 1973 British horror classic The Wicker Man and Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs, The Last Great Wilderness was penned by and stars Alistair Mackenzie (who was in television's Monarch Of The Glen/Boca A Boca), Jonny Phillips (The Quarry/Titanic) and Victoria Smurfit (About A Boy/Bullet Proof Monk).

Drawing inspiration from the road movie genre as a metaphor for self-discovery, The Last Great Wilderness chronicles the travels of Charlie (Mackenzie) and Vincente’s (Phillips) to the Scottish Highlands.

Skye

Charlie is driving to Skye to seek retribution for the theft of his wife, tortured and tormented by a song that un-named musician (played by former Pulp front man Jarvis Cocker) wrote for her before prizing her away from him. At a service station Charlie meets Vincente, a washed-up, pseudo-Spanish gigolo in need of a lift to a remote airfield, desperate to escape a contract castration ordered by the husband of one of his clients.

Together on a parallel journey – with one out for revenge and the other eager to escape – Charlie and Vincente’s objectives are thwarted when their car breaks down in the Scottish countryside. Finding sanctuary in a surreal gothic retreat inhabited by an unorthodox community, Charlie, Vincente and the colourful characters they encounter are forced to confront their personal demons and the mayhem that ensues.

The Pastels

Featuring a first-class, strikingly innovative score, courtesy of Glasgow band The Pastels – accompanied on one number, one of only two non-instrumental tracks (I Picked A Flower) by Jarvis Cocker – the film is only having a limited cinema release. However, for those not fortunate enough to be near the National Film Theatre, or a regional art house cinema, universal pictures video is set to release the last great wilderness on DVD, rated 18, from Universal.

Undoubtedly much of the film’s distinctiveness comes from its use of music and the type of rare collaboration which David Mackenzie established with The Pastels, on this, their first film music commission. Glasgow-based stalwarts of the independent music scene, The Pastels, produced the entire soundtrack for the film. On this project, participating musicians working alaongside the core of the band were: Stephen McRobbie, Katrina Mitchell, Tom Crossley, Alison Mitchell, Gerard Love, Bill Wells, Tori Kudo, Colin McIlroy, James Rutledge, Jarvis Cocker, Bal Cooke and John McEntire.

"Music is so central to the flavour of a film and the Pastels music for our film is an enormous contribution to its vibe." explains David McKenzie (who has since gone on to direct Ewan McGregor in the critically acclaimed Young Adam). "I wanted to give Last Great Wilderness a soulful, melancholy and slightly anarchic feel".

A neo-gothic one-off? Sample it and see...

The Last Great Wilderness is out on DVD now.

Images (C) 2002 Last Great Wilderness Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

More information available in Film, DVD / Home Video