Legendary British director Terence Davies offers a richly cinematic take on a classic of Scottish literature. Sunset Song is an intimate epic of hope, tragedy and love at the dawning of the Great War.

A young woman’s endurance against the hardships of rural Scottish life, based on the novel by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, told with gritty poetic realism by Britain’s greatest living auteur. The film takes place during the early years of the twentieth century, with the conflicts and choices a young woman experiences reflecting the struggle between tradition and change; a struggle that continues to resonate today.

Set in a rural community, Sunset Song is driven by the young heroine Chris and her intense passion for life, for the unsettling Ewan and for the unforgiving land. The First World War reaches out from afar, bringing the modern world to bear on the community in the harshest possible way, yet in a final moment of grace, Chris endures, now a woman of remarkable strength who is able to draw from the ancient land in looking to the future. She dreams of becoming a schoolteacher, though it’s the land itself that exerts the greatest pull over her.

The landscapes of Sunset Song – shot seamlessly between both Scotland and New Zealand – are absolutely ravishing poetic realism. 

★★★★ "A lyrical triumph." – THE GUARDIAN 

"Do not let this song go unheard." – ROLLING STONE

Director Terence Davies

Country UK, Luxembourg

Language English 

Cast

Agyness Deyn, Peter Mullan, Kevin Guthrie

Nominated

Best Film, London Film Festival 2015, Best New Actress, BFI Awards 2015