New York director rediscovered 'majesty of Scotland' making Pitlochry film

Writer and director Schillaci Malmond, who lived in the town from the age of 10, is shooting a Robert Burns-inspired film about a writer who returns to Pitlochry to find inspiration.

Caterhaugh, which boasts Alan Cumming as executive producer and stars Neil Leiper, who appeared in Ken Loach’s The Old Oak, as well as featuring Game of Thrones star, Clive Russell and Camille Rutherford, tells the story of how the writer finds himself in a chilling, real-life fairytale linked to Burns’ Tam Lin ballad.

Around 35 actors and crew are filming Caterhaugh in Pitlochry this week, shot in Faskally Forest, at The Port na Craig Inn and Restaurant and the Bow Lounge of Atholl Palace Hotel.

Tam Lin is a traditional Scottish ballad about a mortal knight captured by the Queen of Fairies, which was collected and edited by Burns. A young woman named Janet rescues the knight on Halloween by holding him through shape-shifting transformations.

Malmond, who studied narrative film-making at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, said: “While this is a narrative, fantastical film, it’s impossible to deny that film - as an art form - deals with time and memory and I have a lot of memories from Pitlochry, growing up.

“So when we look at the river, or we go to the Atholl Palace or while we're in Faskally Forest, there is a sense of my own experience. This is the environment where I formed a lot of my ideas.”

Malmond returned to Pitlochry, briefly, to visit during lockdown.

He said: “What I rediscovered when I came back to visit, because of Covid, was the majesty of Scotland. As a teenager, you just think, ‘there’s nothing to do, here,’ but as you get older you think, ‘wow, I lived in a form of Paradise,’ in this natural world, and, as my tastes have changed in art, I’ve realised how important that natural world is.”

He added: “So many people in Pitlochry have helped to make this film happen. Alan Cumming has single-handedly elevated the project, the Pitlochry Community Action Trust and all the local businesses have been brilliant. It is their generosity that has made it possible.”

Members of the Pitlochry community will also appear as extras in the film, which will premiere next year at Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Edinburgh’s Filmhouse. Workshops will be staged at Pitlochry Town Hall, where local youngsters will be guided to make their own films, to be shown alongside the premiere.

Glasgow-based producer Dylan Howe said: “It has been great to have so much engagement locally. The people have been brilliant.”