Shell

Dir: Scott Graham

2012

**

Scott Graham's eerie 2012 drama is set in a petrol station in the lonely expanse of the Scottish Highlands. Seventeen year old Shell lives and works at the lonely station with only her Father for company. Shell is regularly visited by an older man (Michael Smiley) who drives through twice a week and by a younger man from the nearest village (played by Iain De Caestecker). Both men are interested in Shell romantically and, although she is tempted, both men are shunned. After years of living alone with only her father for company, Shell seems to only have eyes for her Dad. This is where the film lost me somewhat. Isolation is an interesting subject, with many possibilities for storytellers to explore. I think it's a shame how living alone among amidst one of the most stunning landscapes on the planet somehow leads to a story of incest. It's a beautifully performed and directed film, I just think the content is lazy, a bit contrived and a bit insulting to all the many people who live in such conditions. It feels like a story born from the City's fear of the country, which annoys me and also bores me a fair bit. The Highlands is no place for French Existentialism in my humble opinion.