‘The Incomer’ Team Explains Why the Isles of North Scotland Were Overdue for a Comedy

Watch Louis Paxton’s “The Incomer” and you’ll be struck by its intensely specific sense of place. The film, which follows two co-dependent siblings (Gayle Rankin and Grant O’Rourke) who have spent their entire lives on an island in the northernmost part of Scotland, is a product of its setting. From the picturesque scenery and abandoned buildings to the unique cultural customs, it’s a story that could not have been told anywhere else.

When Paxton, Rankin, O’Rourke, and Domnhall Gleeson (who plays the eponymous incomer who shows up to disrupt their routine) visited the IndieWire Studio at Sundance, presented by Dropbox, the conversation quickly turned to the region’s influence on the story.

“My family are from all over Scotland, but North Scotland is where my mum’s from, and we used to go there when we were young. It’s just a really magical place. It’s very far north, you can see the Northern Lights, there’s shipwrecks half in and half out of the water. Birds everywhere, windswept sky and sea. There’s so much history there,” Paxton said. “I hadn’t seen many films that were shot up there. It just feels like the end of the world, it’s very magical. It’s steeped in this mythology, so there’s a little bit of all that in the film.”

The writer/director added that the isles already possessed the unique combination of beauty and decay that the story required — eliminating the need to build many new sets.

“I just wanted to go somewhere and shoot on real locations,” he said. “There’s only one set that we built, the Coast Guard shed, everything else was sourced. All the abandoned houses are real abandoned houses. It does have that almost post-apocalyptic, barren vibe to it, but I also find it beautiful. I think in the film we capture the harshness of it, but also the naturalistic beauty.”

Gleeson added that shooting in such a unique environment can enhance an actor’s performance.

 “There’s less acting [to do], because you’re not pretending it’s cold or it’s windy. They didn’t heat the sea for us, the sea was as cold as it’s meant to be,” Gleeson said. “It strips away some acting and lets you just connect with the people around you and concentrate on the script.”

Gleeson also pointed out that he was attracted to the project because it portrayed the picturesque Scottish isles in a more lighthearted manner than other films, which often treat them as canvases for tragedies and epics.

“When I think about those landscapes, I think about serious films,” he said. “And there’s something else that happens when you put comedy in a really brutal landscape, that’s also beautiful. It just helped all of us.”

Watch the full conversation with the team behind “The Incomer” above.

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