OPENING NIGHT FILM | WORLD PREMIERE


A teenage tale of surfing, sex and hellfire set in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides.


Dir. Johnny Barrington / United Kingdom / 2023 / English

Dondo is a teenage surfer on the Isle of Lewis, who has yet to process his grief over his father’s disappearance at sea. Returning to school, spending time with his crush Sas, and encountering a very oddly-behaved new minister on the island, Dondo begins to have cosmic visions… From the lopsided dude charm of Louis McCartney’s Dondo, to Ella Lily Hyland’s turn as crisp-chomping cool girl, to Hannah Peel’s soaring score, Silent Roar is a film infused with mystic charisma. Johnny Barrington's debut feature renders the Hebridean landscape in tactile 35mm, as something strange and elemental: a place where transgressive explorations of mourning exist alongside witty forays into religion and teenage hormonal curiosity. Surf's up!

Kate Taylor, Programme Director