‘Silent Roar’: Edinburgh Review

Dir: Johnny Barrington. UK. 2022. 130mins

Built around the grief of teenage surfer Dondo (Louis McCartney) after the loss of his father at sea, Johnny Barrington’s debut feature is part coming-of-age drama, part absurdist comedy and part magic realist tale. It’s all topped off with a sprinkling of mysticism and schoolyard humour but, in combining so many elements, it is little wonder the writer/director finds the balance between them all difficult to strike. Its wild and beguiling Hebridean island setting makes Silent Roar an apt choice to open Edinburgh International Film Festival, although its hard-to-categorise nature might mean it is a trickier sell for distributors, especially away from home turf.

 The story unfolds more as a series of odd encounters than a coherent narrative

The project has been a long time coming since Johnny Barrington, who was one of Screen’s Scots Rising Stars last year, was BAFTA-nominated for his 2012 short film Tumult. That may well be why his debut, produced by The Inbetweeners Movie’s Chris Young, feels almost overloaded with ideas that have accrued over the years. 

Dondo is a likeable protagonist, although it is hard to get a handle on what makes him tick. The biggest drivers in his life are sorrow over the loss of his dad (played in flashbacks by Tip Cullen), which leads him to seek solace on his surfboard, and his friendship with local lass Sas (Irish rising star Ella Lily Hyland). She is something of a firebrand in contrast to the way Dondo is drawn to the ocean, an elemental opposition that Barrington sets up but never quite manages to fully exploit. 

It’s a year on since Dondo’s dad went missing at sea and the teenager still talks of his father being lost on an island somewhere, despite his mum (Victoria Balnaves) trying to coax him towards acceptance. A visit from the local priest Paddy (Mark Lockyer) – who is so oddball he makes Father Ted’s Craggy Islanders seem positively run of the mill –  sees Dondo begin to take an interest in God. Dondo’s brush with mysticism is handled in scattergun fashion, evidenced by dreamy visitations from ’Swiss Jesus’ (Sex Education’s Chinenye Ezeudu) – who, for reasons that are never explained, always arrives clutching a black rabbit – and encounters at the beach with three mysterious surfers, who when asked where they come from say, “Planet Earth”, “Solar System” and “Milky Way”.

Sas, on the other hand, is more concerned with the physical aspects of the here and now, trying to get a raise from the adults around her as an act of rebellion against her pious mum Norma (Fiona Bell) in between hanging out with Dondo, quizzing him about whether or not “God has a penis”. This sort of low-brow humour is like oil on the water of the film’s softer side, with the two never mixing successfully. Also despite being supposedly in the same class at school, Hyland appears to be several years older than McCartney, which only further distorts their dynamic. 

The film’s surfing sequences, which make the most of Scotland’s magic hour light are shot with verve by cinematographer Ruben Woodin Dechamps (another Screen Star of Tomorrow in 2020) and underwater cameraman John Frank, and hint at a more soulful undertow that could have used more nourishment. The score from Hannah Peel, meanwhile, offers an enjoyably energetic combination of everything from brass band sound to melodic marimb, and strikes an appropriately youthful note.

The film’s blend of ideas, though equally ambitious, come together less harmoniously, as the story unfolds more as a series of odd encounters than a coherent narrative, and the tone of the humour shifts uneasily from sweet to juvenile. Barrington’s waves of imagination may be big and bold but they’re also unruly, making it hard for an audience to stay with him as he tries to surf between them.