The Edge Of The World

This well-done Robert Flaherty-style quasi-documentary, beautifully photographed on the stark, desolate, rocky island of Foula, in the Shetland chain, off the coast of Scotland, was writer-director Powell's first big success. The film's featured players and its secondary plot are mingled with the real occurrences of the island--here called Hirta, Nordic for death--and its fewer than 100 beleaguered inhabitants. The island's economy is dying, its waters are fished out, its peat supplies are nearly gone. Evacuation of the islanders to the mainland is urged by Berry over the opposition of his father, Laurie, and other islanders. Berry falls to his death during a test ...