Michael Powell is best known for the films he made with Emeric Pressburger under the brand name "The Archers", but "The Edge of the World" from 1937 is a solo project, predating his partnership with Pressburger. It was inspired by the evacuation of the remote Scottish archipelago of St Kilda in 1930. Here the island is named "Hirta", which is the same name as that of the main island of the St Kilda group, but it is relocated from the Hebrides to the Orkneys or Shetlands. (Permission to film on St Kilda itself was refused, so filming actually took place on Foula in the Shetlands, although that island was, and remains to this day, inhabited).
A wealthy young couple, sailing around Scotland by yacht, arrive on the island where they discover abandoned cottages but no human inhabitants. They ask Andrew Gray, the skipper of their yacht and himself a native of the island, what happened, and he explains that the island has been deserted for ten years. He then tells them the story of how the population came to leave. The islanders were divided among themselves; some, including Andrew himself, wanted to stay whereas others, such as his close friend Robbie Manson, wanted to leave. Even families were split; Andrew's father James sided with Robbie, whereas Robbie's father Peter and his sister Ruth (who was also Andrew's sweetheart) were both among those determined to stay.
The story told here is partly based upon the true story of the evacuation of St Kilda and is partly fictitious. As on the real St Kilda, the main factor which is drawing people away from the fictitious island of "Hirta" is the greater employment opportunities offered to young people on the mainland. There is also the fact that there are no medical facilities on the island. The people of Hirta are also concerned that competition from commercial trawlers is damaging the local fishing industry. (This was not a factor on the real St Kilda, where the rough and perilous seas meant that the local people did little fishing). As the younger generation gradually leave, this makes it more difficult for those remaining to follow their traditional way of life which relies on strong, fit young people to help with the fishing and crofting and to gather sea birds' eggs from the cliffs. (This was an important source of protein in their diet).
Powell, born in Canterbury, may have been a native of southern England, but had a deep love of the Scottish highlands and islands; two of his later films with Pressburger, "The Spy in Black" and "I Know Where I'm Going!" were also set in the area. "The Edge of the World" can be seen as his tribute to the way of life of the local people, a life which Powell and his cast and crew shared for several months while on Foula. (No air service or regular ferry existed in 1937, meaning that they had to stay on the island for the whole length of the shoot).
While "The Edge of the World" tells a fictional story, it has a documentary feel to it, reminiscent of the documentary shorts such as "The Islanders" which were being produced by the GPO Film Unit around the same time. At this period life on remote islands was hard and lonely; the islanders of Foula, like those of St Kilda, had no gas, electricity or running water. They had never seen a car, an aircraft or even a bicycle. There were no radios and no postal service; their only way of communicating with the outside world was to launch a letter into the sea in a small wooden vessel, hoping it would be picked up by a passing ship. (They make use of this method during the film). The characters in the film refer to the mainland as "Scotland", as through Scotland were somewhere foreign, not the country where they live.
Powell shows us not only the hardships and dangers of their life but also their simple religious faith, their democratic ways (all decisions of importance are taken by an island Parliament) and their independent spirit. He also captures, in some striking black- and-white photography, the austere natural beauty of the island. The film may not have the complexity of some of his "Archers" films, but it has a beauty, a tragic power and a poetic simplicity which make it unusual in the annals of British film-making, matched in these respects perhaps only by Bryan Forbes' "Whistle Down the Wind". 9/10
A goof. The main story is said to have happened ten years ago, presumably in 1927, but the characters refer to the evacuation of St Kilda, which did not occur until 1930.
