Local Hero

In the early 1980s, Bill Forsyth shone the international spotlight on Scottish cinema with this delightful cultural-clash comedy. Texan oil company executive Mac (Peter Riegert) is instructed by his charismatic boss (Burt Lancaster) to travel to a remote coastal village in the Highlands to purchase the entire area, with the intention of building a refinery there. What is supposed to be a business trip quickly turns into an existential experience: amidst breath-taking landscapes, a fairy-tale atmosphere and eccentric characters, Mac eventually succumbs to the charms of the small village and its inhabitants. Texas, with its frenetic pace of life and pragmatism, begins to seem increasingly distant. With a constant stream of sharp jokes, deadpan gags and moments of poignant tenderness, Forsyth, with the grace of a young Preston Sturges, crafts a modern fable that blends humour, poetry and satire. It is an allegory about belonging and identity, about the difficult balance between development and environmental protection, and about the legacy that each of us leaves to the world.