The Road Dance

With the Great War fast approaching, this story focusses on the young "Kirsty" (Hermione Corfield) who is well and truly enamoured of the slightly bookish "Murdo" (Will Fletcher). Their formal courtship follows all of the traditions of the Hebridean customs with due deference paid to the minister and the rules of the kirk. They do plan to marry, everyone expects and approves of that - but then the island's young men are conscripted. Individually, they might be posted anywhere but if they join up together, though, then they will be posted together - so a road dance is arranged to help send them on their way. Now plumbing on the island isn't what it might be, so "Kirsty" heads into the heather and that's where the story turns quite heinous. "Murdo" heads off to war completely unaware that his beloved is now the owner of an increasingly terrible secret that is going to change the life of her, her mother (Morven Christie) and sister (Ali Fumiko Whitney) forever. Tragedies for this girl are like busses, they take their time then come in clutches - and the surfeit of bad news facing the young girl forces her to drastic measures that require her family to rally round and shield her from the eyes of the curious constable (Ian Pirie) before coming to terms with a scenario that seems hopeless. This is a beautifully shot feature showing off the bleak beauty of the Isle of Lewis whilst showing us something of the sense of the slightly puritanical and fairly subsistence community that existed there in the 1930s. Corfield delivers convincingly as the plot develops, engaging charmingly with the young Fletcher then exuding some of the courage required by this young girl dealing with an unwanted situation on just about every front. The denouement is a little but rushed, but the film ultimately has an acceptable degree of completeness that stays just the right side of sentimentality.