When a filmmaker turns 'sculptor'

Finding head space: actor George MacKay and director Paul Wright ahead of the world premiere of Mission at the Edinburgh International Film Festival Photo: Robin Mair for EIFF

It can take time and breathing space for any filmmaker to embark on a second feature once all the attention and brouhaha subsides around your debut breakthrough. For Paul Wright, who started directing short films in 2007 and had his first 2013 feature film For Those In Peril chosen for 52nd Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival it was a necessary hiatus. There was also a Scottish BAFTA award and a nomination for Outstanding Debut at the UK BAFTAs just to add to the air of expectation.

When it came to his latest work Mission, with main actor George MacKay (from For Those in Peril), he felt “the momentum was there from the start.

“With For Those in Peril there was a bit of coming and going. But for the new film it was feeling of a return to what I really wanted to do. I think I was may be overthinking other projects. Here it was like doubling down on what I want to do and sticking with that. And thankfully the producers and some of the funding bodies got behind us quite early and were intrigued by almost all of it.”

Paul Wright: 'The images were as important as the word for word script. There was a lot of room for improvisation' Photo: Robin Mair for EIFF

World premiered recently at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Mission decidedly is not an easy ride, delving into the pressures on young men, mental health and loneliness with MacKay excelling as troubled restaurant worker Dylan. He is beset by memories of his childhood and his relationship with his sister Claire (played by Rosy McEwen as an adult and with whom he reconnects). The production notes describe it as “a punk exploration of the psyche which follows alienated Dylan as he throws off the shackles of his solitary life in an attempt to experience the highs and lows of existence at its most extreme, embarking on a thrilling journey of self-discovery that proves both inspiring and terrifying”.

Wright’s long-standing friendship and empathy with MacKay proved invaluable. “We had worked together previously [on For Those in Peril] so we had a really good relationship. And he had mentioned that he would like to work with me again. It definitely helped having him on board from the start. We started talking about it at the development stage and we kept in touch. We had discussions early on and I let him in to the world I was creating – and therefore he had a lot of input as well. So those discussions happened at least two years before any filming began.”

Now 45, Wright suggested that the creative spark was more an idea, a feeling and an emotion rather than a hard and fast narrative. “I felt that may be there was something in there that I wanted to explore. It wasn’t until quite late in the process that we actually had a script. Until then we had one or two lines and a lot of images – and the images were as important as the word for word script. There was a lot of room for improvisation,” he suggested.

George MacKay in Mission 'On a thrilling journey of self-discovery that proves both inspiring and terrifying' Photo: Courtesy of EIFF

The director, who grew up in Lower Largo in Fife and studied fiction direction at the National Film and Television School, revealed that the “contrasts of life are something that I am fascinated with in my films. Moving from dark to light, from calm to frenzied, from something beautiful to something horrific ... Grief and death are themes I explore, as I believe that, when death is present, what happens in life can become all the more fragile and sublime".

As with a hunter-gatherer he likes to allow himself plenty of time to forage for footage – to capture moments and explore variations of those moments.

He said: “I’m very much a believer in creating the film in post-production. So it was about getting as much relevant, strong material as possible, and then sculpting and shaping it in the edit. We finished shooting in 2024 but I needed that time for the edit. It is more akin to documentary filming – you end up with a large volume of material that you have to hone down. From the very beginning I made it clear that this was going to be an organic process – and I was fortunate that the funders were behind it all, which is especially important when you are trying to do something that is not very conventional.”

When Wright is not embroiled in filmmaking he lectures part-time at the University of the West of Scotland (School of Business and Creative Industries). “It's great and energising just working with the students. I think you can learn so much about yourself from them. And from teaching in general you find out what is important, and what to hold on to. And just on a practical level I can double down more on my own ideas in my own work, because I have the teaching there in the background as something to hold on to whereas previously I was scrambling around for next month's pay round.”