Kinross actress Victoria Balnaves has told of her pride at starring in the Scottish movie taking centre stage at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Silent Roar – which opens the event on Friday – charts the fortunes of Dondo, a young surfer who refuses to accept the death of his fisherman father.
Victoria, who plays the teenager’s mum Veronica, says the Lewis-shot flick was a joy to work on.
Silent Roar recognition
The 45-year-old said: “I’m really pleased for everyone involved because it was a wee while ago it was filmed and then everything goes silent.
“It could have gone either way. It felt like you might never hear anything about it – or it could be big.
“The fact it’s been chosen to open the film festival is so lovely, especially for Johnny [Barrington] who wrote and directed it.
“It’s all kind of based on his childhood.
“I feel really proud that I’m a part of it and that it’s getting some recognition.”
The former Kinross High School pupil says the setting of Silent Roar was reminiscent of Strontian on the Ardnamurchan peninsula where she lives with her husband Graham and their two young daughters.
Family life
She said: “Everyone is a wee bit fascinated I think by this idea of teenagers on an island.
“People think, how do you bring teenagers up on a tiny Scottish island when there’s nothing for them to do?
“There’s this obsession with it and we’ve learnt that now because we chose to move to this peninsula and our kids are at school.
“My nine-year-old is in primary five and my youngest is in primary one and we’ve got the high school right beside it as well.”
Portraying the mother of the movie’s main character meant emotional scenes in choppy weather for Victoria, whose TV credits include Still Game, Gary: Tank Commander and Two Doors Down.
Dramatic scenes
The mum of two – who plans to set up a gin distillery with husband Graham – said: “One of the very first shots I did was near the end of the film, where I’m on a beach right on the north-west of Lewis and there’s a whole load of us there, it was a dramatic scene.
“We had a medical nurse on the set to keep an eye on everybody.
“She was absolutely brilliant but I’m not sure she knew the context of the scene we were filming so my character was hysterical, in floods of tears, and obviously I’m having to work on all the emotional side of things.
“And I think the nurse suspected hypothermia.
“So she was saying to the director and the producer: ‘We really need to get Victoria back in!’
“She did it a couple of times and I think she then realised: ‘Oh she’s supposed to be in that state!’
“But they did try to finish my part really quickly and whisk me away to warmth while all these poor supporting artists were getting absolutely battered by the weather!”
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