Iorram

This culturally vital documentary is a thought-provoking look at the threatened state of a once-thriving fishing industry in the Outer Hebrides. Shot around the island of Barra, producer/director Alastair Cole's feature offers so much more than just harbour views of men in Day-Glo oilskins netting crabs and lobsters in creels. Shot night and day on crisp digital stock, Cole's images spookily illuminate genial dialogue and shanties both balefully humorous and gothic, originally recorded by fisherfolk between 1947 and 1975, and all delivered in Scottish Gaelic. Tales of superstition, nostalgia, highland clearances, peat bogs and the big storm of 1934 are shared, enhanced by folk musician Aidan O'Rourke's hypnotically understated score. In the present, a trawlerman drinks from a Sports Direct mug and prawn-sorters wear earbuds. It's less a documentary, more like unearthed treasure.