Can’t say I was aware of the film before, but Hallam Foe is a Scottish drama film directed by David Mackenzie based on the novel written by Peter Jinks and premiered at the Berlin Film Festival on February 16, 2007 where the movie competed for the Golden Bear for Best Motion Picture. The film won the Silver Bear for Best Music. And so it bloody well should have bearing in mind that the film’s soundtrack is comprised entirely of music from Domino’s own flawless catalogue, Orangue Juice’s ‘Blue Boy’, Sons and Daughters’ ‘Broken Bones’, Psapp’s ‘Tricycle’, James Yorkston’s ‘Surf Song’, King Creosotes’s ‘That Someone Else’ in addition to songs by Clinic, U.N.P.O.C, Junior Boys, Movietone and a track written exclusively for the film from Franz Ferdinand and not released anywhere else before.
And what about the movie? Hallam Foe is a sweet, troubled and old fashioned teenager who learns about life at his father’s estate near Peebles through his favourite pastime – voyeurism. Hallam is convinced that his stepmother Verity is responsible for his mother’s death by drowning two years earlier. Hallam’s sister leaves home to attend university, and it becomes clear that Verity and his father want Hallam to move on as well. Hallam initially refuses due to his suspicion of Verity, but she uses his diaries to blackmail him into leaving. To escape his father and stepmother, Hallam travels to Edinburgh.
The film was released in the UK on 31 August 2007 and was given an 18 rating.
The music is as quietly queer and as tantalisingly the subject matter. That goes without saying.