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283:) tells him that his book is outdated and the island is indeed uninhabited now. Andrew tries to dissuade the yachtsman from landing, but he decides to do so anyway. After landing, they find a gravestone on the edge of a cliff, and Andrew, who turns out to be a former islander on Hirta, starts to reminisce. The remainder of the film is his flashback. Andrew's friend Robbie Manson (Eric Berry) wants to leave the island and explore the wider world. Robbie's sister, Ruth Manson (
354:'s egg, for which a collector had promised to pay five pounds. The egg can be found in a nest on a steep cliff, which Peter climbs down tied to a rope. As he is climbing back up, the rope frays and Peter falls to his death. His gravestone is placed on the edge of the cliff and it was the one found by the yachtsman in the initial scenes.
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is almost depleted and will only last to provide fuel for one more winter, are the final straws, and the islanders decide to evacuate to the mainland. Peter Manson reluctantly signs the petition for the government to assist in their evacuation and resettlement. As the island is being evacuated, Peter
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Powell wrote a book about his experience making the film: raising the initial funding, trying and failing to make the film on St Kilda, then realising that Foula could be used instead. He detailed how the cast and crew were selected and how they lived and worked on the island at a time when there
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The island depicted in the film is referred to as "Hirta", which is the actual name of the formerly inhabited main island of the St Kilda archipelago, but a map that appears two minutes into the film actually shows Foula (even the name of the real-life settlement of Ham on Foula can be read), the
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Powell gathered together a cast and crew who were willing to take part in an expedition to what, before the air service that now exists, was a very isolated part of the UK. They had to stay there for quite a few months and finished up with a film which not only told the story he wanted but also
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and tells how the film came to be made. Then he, John Laurie, Sydney
Streeter, Grant Sutherland and others return to Foula. In the second part, they talk to some of the islanders who were there in 1937 and remember those who couldn't make the reunion.
279:(see note in "Production" below). The yachtsman (played by the director, Michael Powell) finds it strange that the island looks deserted, when a book he carries mentions that it should be inhabited. His crewman Andrew Gray (
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girl called Polly, whom he had met in a brief period working outside Hirta, and intends to announce that to the other islanders on the next day at the men's assembly, the "parliament". Robbie's father, Peter Manson
555:. Following the death of Belle Chrystall in 2003, there are no surviving members of the credited cast or crew. Andy Gear, who at age six lived on Foula and was featured as a "Villager in Evacuation" lives in
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a distant island", which is more consistent with the location of Foula, and in the "parliament" scene Robbie mentions the previous evacuation of St Kilda. Moreover, St
Kildans spoke
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as, one by one, the younger generation leaves for the greater opportunities offered by the mainland, making it harder to follow the old ways of life there.
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and some of the surviving cast and crew went back to Foula to re-visit the island where they had made the film that changed their lives. This was made for
366:' for some years but wanted to make a film about the depopulation of the Scottish islands ever since seeing a newspaper article about the evacuation of
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Earl, David W.. "Michael Powell's The Edge of the World - Then & Now". Hanover
Publications, February 2014.
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on which Andrew is about to be employed as a crewman. Andrew arrives on Hirta on the trawler amid a fierce
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This article is about the 1937 film by
Michael Powell. For other uses, see
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The film is the story of the depopulation of one of the isolated
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TV to act as "colour bookends" to the 1937 film and is called
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Review from "Picture Show" magazine, 14 August 1937
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742:"Edge of the World": The Making of a Film
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389:introduction text mentions that the
961:The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
211:is a 1937 British film directed by
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749:A Life in Movies: An Autobiography
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411:
387:
372:
361:
344:
317:
302:
270:
265:
244:
237:
232:, coined by
229:ultima Thule
227:
207:
206:
205:
172:Running time
148:Release date
133:(uncredited)
132:
107:Skeets Kelly
104:Monty Berman
22:
1302:Peeping Tom
561:Yell island
340:tracheotomy
294:John Laurie
220:archipelago
80:John Laurie
66:Produced by
48:Directed by
1379:1937 films
1373:Categories
1162:Red Ensign
1148:Born Lucky
940:Contraband
696:1 November
582:References
470:1938, 1990
449:Nonfiction
417:Literature
358:Production
336:diphtheria
176:81 minutes
159:1937-07-06
87:Eric Berry
58:Written by
1183:Lazybones
455:Publisher
352:guillemot
320:mail boat
289:Norwegian
163: (UK)
116:Edited by
42:DVD cover
1106:The Rasp
858:AllMovie
755:, 1986.
672:Hebrides
668:Mingulay
664:(Robbie)
619:Archived
567:See also
559:, North
437:Language
383:Scotland
368:St Kilda
305:crofting
239:Georgics
224:St Kilda
217:Scottish
189:Language
126:Music by
76:Starring
70:Joe Rock
1218:Someday
865:at the
834:at the
816:at the
805:at the
726:, 1938.
557:Gutcher
440:English
395:Orkneys
377:in the
311:on the
309:Lerwick
242:1:30).
192:English
181:Country
157: (
1134:C.O.D.
785:
774:
759:
737:, 1938
577:(1928)
427:Author
391:Romans
234:Virgil
197:Budget
1419:Foula
1260:Smith
1113:Rynox
612:BFI:
587:Notes
486:Print
445:Genre
375:Foula
277:Hirta
273:yacht
847:IMDb
783:ISBN
772:ISBN
757:ISBN
698:2021
492:ISBN
347:peat
332:gale
253:Plot
856:at
845:at
820:'s
818:BFI
553:BFI
536:BBC
405:of
264:in
222:of
1375::
751:.
722:.
718:.
689:.
661:,
657:,
638:.
409:.
385:.
315:.
895:e
888:t
881:v
789:.
778:.
763:.
700:.
292:(
236:(
161:)
20:.
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