The Edge of the World (1937)

Probably the only movie ever filmed and set in the Shetland Islands. Director Michael Powell’s highly personal early film was shot on a limited budget, it was essentially an independent production which probably only ever got made because it was needed to fill the quota of domestically produced films British movie houses were required to screen at the time (part of a government effort to keep the Anglo film industry going despite heavy and generally better financed American competition). Inspired by a true story Powell had read in a newspaper back in 1930, The Edge of the World is the story of the death of an island community. The hard Shetlander life style was becoming increasingly untenable as more and more of the island young people left for the greater opportunity to be found in Scotland and elsewhere, and as economic and technical changes made the modest fishing, wool and farming economy of the islands obsolete. Though many tradition bound natives clung to their old ways and fought ‘progress’ as best as they could, in the end it was a losing battle and many of the Shetland islands would become abandoned by man, left to wild birds and the occasional flock of sheep left tended alone for months at a time by the chains famed small Collies (full disclosure: I had one of those wonderful Shelties growing up).

The movies actual story is relatively light, and there mostly as a metaphor for what was happening in the island society at that time. In other words the plot is a skeleton, a necessary excuse upon which to graft a near documentary real portrait of a dying way of life. Powell is a visual director, and his extraordinary eye captures all the stark beauty of the subject island and its inhabitants. The black and white images suit this story better then color ever cold, they reflect the beauty and sadness, and simplicity and isolation of these northern colonies. The film is almost entirely a reflective piece (two cliff climbing scenes and a storm sequence constituting the pictures only real physical action), and has even been described as a visual poem, which is probably the best summation you could give to it. A lovely little piece of obscure British film making. Grade: B