An dà shealladh

A Canadian artist specializing in installation work, Bonetta’s directorial collaboration with JP Sniadecki, EL MAR LA MAR, was a poetic highlight of Viennale 2017. He now returns with a remarkable solo feature-length debut. The title is an English translation of the Gaelic phrase “an dà-shealladh”, referring to the rare ability that allows visionary individuals to see beyond the physical world into supernatural realms and future events. Belief in this phenomenon – regarded as a curse as much as a gift – was commonly held across the whole of Scotland until the 18th century, lingering in the Highlands and in island locations such as the windswept Outer Hebrides. The latter is where Bonnetta “collected” his material from 2017– 19, gathering sensory impressions and an anthology of strange, memorable, sometimes spooky, sometimes wryly humorous tales from the disparate inhabitants of the magical archipelago. Shot on 16mm with dialogue in English and Gaelic amid myriad natural sounds, plus songs and musical interludes, his documentary is a sensitive, ruminative, ruggedly beautiful journey into the enigmatic margins of human experience; an experimental-tinged cine-travelogue of unassuming resonance. (Neil Young)

Joshua Bonnetta: AMERICAN COLOUR (2011), STRANGE LINES & DISTANCES (2013), EL MAR LA MAR (2017)