Businesses give backing as new film shoots in Pitlochry

Over 35 crew descend on Highland Perthshire

Pitlochry is receiving a sprinkling of Tinseltown this week with around 35 actors and crew converging upon the Perthshire town to shoot scenes for a dark, new Burns-inspired film.

‘Caterhaugh’, which includes Alan Cumming as Executive Producer, features leading Scottish and European actors and has been written by New York-based Schillaci Malmond, who spent formative years in the town.

It will also feature members of the Pitlochry community - donning red masks - with local businesses pitching in to support the production, which will premiere next year at Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Edinburgh’s Filmhouse.

The key locations

Key scenes are being shot in Faskally Forest, at The Port na Craig Inn and Restaurant and the Bow Lounge of Atholl Palace Hotel, which perches above the scenic Victorian town.

It is the first time cast and crews have rolled into Pitlochry since the 2019 film, Christmas at the Castle, which featured scenes shot at a local beauty salon.

The arrival of the cast, including Game of Thrones star, Clive Russell, has sparked excitement, with local school children set to be involved in film-making workshops ahead of the first screenings in early 2027.

Neil Leiper, who starred in Ken Loach’s ‘The Old Oak’, will play the lead role of writer Tam Ordynov, who retreats to Pitlochry to find inspiration only to become entrapped in a chilling, real-life fairytale.

Camille Rutherford, who starred in the Cannes award-winning film, ‘Anatomy of a Fall’, plays Jeanne, the troubled writer’s partner, who also becomes ensnared in the terrifying myth inspired by Burns’ Tam Lin.

Producer Dylan Howe and writer Schillaci Malmond at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, donning the red masks the Pitlochry community will wear in the new film.

Writer’s homecoming

For writer and Director, Schillaci Malmond, returning ‘home’ is like a re-awakening, after 13 years living in New York, punctuated by his studies in narrative film-making at Glasgow’s Royal Conservatoire.

“I moved here when I was about 10. While this is a narrative, fantastical film, it’s impossible to deny that film - as an art form - deals with time and memory and I have a lot of memories from Pitlochry, growing up.

“So when we look at the river, or we go to the Atholl Palace or while we're in Faskally Forest, there is a sense of my own experience. This is the environment where I formed a lot of my ideas.”

Malmond returned to Pitlochry, briefly, to visit during lockdown and admits it felt surreal after so long in New York but he is excited to be centring his new work, there, and is grateful for the town’s support.

“What I rediscovered when I came back to visit, because of Covid, was the majesty of Scotland. As a teenager, you just think, ‘there’s nothing to do, here,’ but as you get older you think, ‘wow, I lived in a form of Paradise,’ in this natural world, and, as my tastes have changed in art, I’ve realised how important that natural world is.

“So many people in Pitlochry have helped to make this film happen. Alan Cumming has single - handedly elevated the project, the Pitlochry Community Action Trust and all the local businesses have been brilliant. It is their generosity that has made it possible.”

Filming inside Port na Craig Inn

Community shaping the film’s future

While the town will provide a backdrop, the people of Pitlochry will be key to the film’s future.

The team met 40 residents at the Town Hall and 4 workshops will be staged there where youngsters will be guided to make their own films, to be shown alongside the premiere.

Glasgow-based Producer Dylan Howe has been ‘living in Pitlochry’ in recent weeks, engaging with groups and businesses, and local school kids will visit the set this week.

“It has been great to have so much engagement locally. The people have been brilliant.”