The Incomer

Off the north east coast of Scotland - there lies a small island upon which siblings "Isla" (Gayle Rankin) and brother "Sandy" (Grant O'Rourke) have lived for thirty winters. Entirely self contained and living their lives according to the cult of the gull, they only really have one law. Make sure any interlopers get hoyed over the cliff into the sea! On the mainland, the aspiring "Roz" (Michelle Gomez) has become aware of their existance and so sends the hapless office-boy "Daniel" (Domhnall Gleeson) out to serve them with an eviction notice. Just when it looks like he is destined for the same fate as his predecessors, though, he manages to use the music from his mobile phone and some grand gesturing to convince them he is a wizard. He begins to regale them with a sort of civil service hybrid of JRR Tolkien stories and next thing, they are eating out of his hands. "Isla" is much the more sceptical of the two, but as both gradually fall for their visitor we have to wonder if he might end up going native and staying, or might the ambitious "Roz" have to send in the cavalry - in the guise of her one man army "Callum" (Emun Elliott) to evict and protect? In some ways this has the look of a Mark Jenkin film with some lovely aerial photography of a windswept island that has clearly seen some cottage industries in the past but that is now abandoned save for our two eccentric residents. Thereafter, though, this develops much more of a layered story that combines some genuinely funny Scots humour (you have to be very careful how you punctuate a sentence with "Sam" humping "Frodo" up fifteen flights of stairs!) alongside some mysticism, some local authority form-filling indifference and the effects of isolation on all three of them. She has an interesting relationship with the "Fin Man" (John Hannah doing his own impersonation of a seal - complete with whiskers) that reflects her own issues with not just their current situation but with the memories of her long-absent parents whose backstory is gently but not comprehensively presented throughout. If I'm honest, I didn't really love the denouement but there is plenty of fun along the way and if you've a guid Scots tongue in your heid, you'll appreciate the humour from the vernacular dialogue. It might put you off having a chicken for a while, though - and there are a great many feathers!